Geraint Thomas’ Surprise & Racing Begins in Europe | LRCP Weekly Show

In the first episode of our new weekly show Patrick & Benji roundup the races of the past week, preview the three upcoming stage races and delve into the latest news in the world of cycling.

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Credits:
Photos | Cor Vos (unless stated otherwise)
Profiles | La Flamme Rouge

Timestamps:
00:00:00 Intro
00:01:59 Australian races wrap-up
00:13:35 Spanish one-days
00:29:16 Other races
00:34:10 Geraint Thomas announces Giro-Tour double
00:42:40 AlUla Tour preview
00:47:33 Etoile de Bessèges preview
00:51:38 Volta a la Comunitat Valenciana preview
00:55:07 How to follow the races
00:55:47 Grand Tour wild-card announcements
00:58:11 Drama in Italy
01:05:15 E3’s homophobic cartoon
01:11:40 Roundup

Welcome back to the lon R cycling podcast for our first ever weekly show we’ve been wanting to do this for quite a while not content with covering most of the World Tour we want to cover those smaller races or other races or other news throughout cycling that we’ve we’ve

Not had a format to do we’ve maybe had to tack it in at the end of a a race recap but here we can do a recap of the me yoran races we’ve just watched the Australian Classics in Victoria the races upcoming will’ll have short previews for alav or valenciano or Bes

Or Saudi tour about a million of them we’ve got E3 sharing a homophobic cartoon G’s announcement of his uh what I think is a very surprising schedule so much news to get into wild cards it say I’m Keen to do this Benji and this show is brought to you by join

Cycling more on them in a second one of our new partners uh but yeah what’s your what’s been the most shocking news I guess in cycling this at the moment Benji for me it actually was like the G’s G’s announcement that he was going

To do two grand Tours in a row I think it’s good that he announced that but we’ll get to that in a bit but ah there’s been just been a lot happening it’s like season kicked off again a lot of racing and it’s also a lot of racing

At the same time so GP marier as well all the moror challenge are happening and then I’m then I’m trying to figure out where I can watch it cuz I’m still burning Under The Fallout of gcn plus to the point that I’m not sure what’s going

To be on Discovery plus and what won’t be and eventually I reckon I’ve been able to watch most of what cycling had to offer in the in the recent month and yeah there’s been a few uh debacles coming along like the E3 thing like neble bullying an Italian zft Academy

Member on straa like there’s a lot happening in this board yeah first will wrap up the Australian races one of our fan favorites or one of our favorites rather not sure if he’s a fan favorite Lawrence piy won the small group Sprint in the cadel Evans Great Ocean Road Race

That’s sort of it’s got a hilly climb about 9k from the Finish called chumra Australia loves to have these like Punchy Suburban Hills decide their races and this race is no different and he was getting over that easily actually in the in the front group and then he nearly

Got boxed in and won the Sprint ahead of Nell taton he was very very close the a train on little Tre and yor Zimmerman came third on Anto marhe so Corbin strong and Israel maybe a little bit disappointed I think they would have hoped for at least a Podium with the the

Strength of Williams and Corin strong yeah I think so as well and the thing with strong as well is that this parkour is kind of made for him like reducing the group and the way that the team Israel was trying to hold it together for him was also thanb they were able to

Do so quite well leading into a final Sprint but at the Sprint he just wasn’t good enough ify was Stronger he wasn’t a position that I thought he was completely boxed in in but somehow he made his way through that group and he looked faster than everybody by like

Quite a bit he dominantly won that Sprint then I vividly remember starting to follow this guy I think it was 2022 in the New Zealand cycle classic I didn’t know that he had won the Baltic chain tour the year before and I think a stage in there as well but new New

Zealand cycle classic D’s the one when I when I was like cuz for some reason when the season starts I kind of want to follow every race that exists including like uh what is it a 2.1 race or something 2.2 race or something in in New Zealand I think Keegan horn hornblow

Or something won it in 2022 I don’t know why I remember that but I I was really hoping that he would win a Sprint that year I think he did it in Normandy that year and then the year after he obviously went to the to the World Tour

Team with LA atlanti and cholet where he was really good like those French smaller Classics he won one of the two can’t remember which of the two and now in 2024 like the way he was not only sprinting at Santos to the Ender but also climbing on the uh Mount lofty

Stage where he was near the front group like that shows not just sprinting but versatile qualities and it delivers in this race yeah he seems to be taking a big step up there’s also other riders in meor who I think might be this year as well but yeah f is definitely one to

Watch out for ftj have started January uh with a bang not just with points but actually winning races and a world tour race before you even start the races in February is is certainly a way to to start the season and and get that stat sheet going in the women’s race Cecilia

Utra bludwig was the the best on on chal lamra gante attacked first but then I think utra bludwig is probably maybe it’s in terms like pure puncho maybe the best in the world her and lipid I see at the moment or or wering in terms of like a 202nd attack uphill she gapped

Everybody but seemed to like put herself in the red because Dominica vuk I can’t say it how do you say her name I’d reckon it’s vodar and Rosita rhow they both bridged up to UWI but did you just forget to mention your you’re probably one of your favorite

Punchers kashan Nadar or do you think that 20 seconds is too short for her no lud lud on an uphill pun 20 second uphill punch quicker than yeah so it’s a kilometer 8% CB she needs yeah I’m not even sure that’s remotely the the percentage of the cow B but I just

Made just made I’m still harder yeah hly age but anyway we just said those two bridged up Dominica vorar she was pretty close I think in in Sandos toand as well was pretty good there polish rer on UAE and then Rosita reinout was top 10 I

Think at Sand a Dutch Rider on on vizal Lisa bike and it was quite interesting because I thought that group was going to just either get caught or Sprint at the finish line and suddenly the camera P to the front group and Rosita’s off rhow is just with a gap on the others

And I missed the attack so I was like make it she was pulling much stronger than them and ludig wasn’t rolling through so lud is like ludvig is Coster and Val right in the women’s R so like she won’t relay she’s a Bane in any chasing group or even in a leading group

Yeah that’s me it’s in the leading group and then I think vadic went for her to pull through reinanhs pulled through really strong L’s let the wheel go and then there’s a gap and so reinal like just went and she’s a small Rider I was like this is

Going to be tough to keep this uh keep this going and with the group chasing behind with also the duo Gigante is attacking from group now three on the road so there’s groups everywhere uh but Reinhard manages to stay away ludig and vachi can’t really cooperate uh and yeah

She she wins a big race for vismo ebike women’s team and uh for herself and you know 19 years old winning on the attacking on the flat like that I was very surprised and super strong performance so that was good to see young Rider is winning both races

Average age of about 20 20 years old winning both the K races it was also the uh there’s like a Sprint classic a one- one in the week called the surf close classic uh where uh bie won the Sprint ahead of viviani and Str strong Caleb

Euan didn’t uh didn’t 11 I think he came 11th or something but is this the the race that was previously called race T cuz I remember vely oh okay yeah I I I didn’t know for sure if it was that but hey good win for

Binum I don’t know how how much I can place on it I actually didn’t see the final of that race so I don’t know if you saw specifically the Sprint itself whether he was in a better position or not but I literally couldn’t find where to watch

It uh it wasn’t live broadcast it was only I think okay you go yeah I’ll give you a pass this time Luke PL he raced both of those races I’m not sure that was the best idea uh frankly with maybe bigger and in a grand tour later in the

Year but thankfully he didn’t go down again with that severe road rash but he actually looked good he he and tying tying particularly PL actually looked very good in CAD 11’s Road Race um trying to bring Kell back but it’s it’s tough to win that it was his skill set

Unless you really go clear after shal lombra like Simmons tried to do and uh it’s tough on your own with Williams chasing on Israel behind uh that’s all the Australian races Benji how would you rate the Australian summer stockling oo I like that the youngsters really show down on top I also enjoy

That Steven Williams maybe not the youngest Rider is also winning a race like that outside of the Arctic race of norways or whatever he wins throughout the season usually so that’s also a bit of a step up there but I like youngsta’s winning but it’s also a forgettable

Australian season for me personally yeah no like Richie poor Dominus it was good to see gigantti back I think the women’s was was okay uh I think women’s both cadel’s finals was was very very exciting particularly the women’s it’s like a I think it was yeah is that rude yeah

Um maybe I think it was good to see not inos Yambo or or um or UA winning all the races it’s just good to have different teams winning some World Tour races as well to sou year maybe that will change in the upcoming month yeah but uh but yeah there is light points

Though in Riders on that team that you might not have expected to perform that well as in Delo obviously we expected him to perform at some point in his life because he was Bloody talented but to do it at the first race already lemon at

Visma same thing vad I was maybe a bit disappointed in because I expected him to be leader but lemon was just better this race so it’s kind of the getting to know the maybe newer Riders on the Block I would say yeah yeah well that’s Australia that’s Australian cycling my Australian summer

Recycling is over as well and I did that on the join cycling app so the join cycling app it’s really big in the Netherlands and now they’re going global it’s an Adaptive training platform for you to get the most out of your cycling you can use your power meter or heart

Rate as well with the join training tool and it’s an adapt training plan so you insert or you have your training history you insert your goals you insert your weekly availability and then you can change that daily availability I’m not available to train today on the app and

It adjusts your training program on the Fly immediately uh and suggest workouts you have but the best thing that I like about it is the flexibility because like I’ll be frank with you I am not going to do the exact 100% compliance with the intervals of a training plan for four

Weeks straight I’m not going to do that like I’ve I’ve tried it before and I just can’t do it riding outside as well a fair bit impossible that’s why I I I’ve used this for my postco recovery training plan the last month because there’s a recovery training plan when

You’re getting back into fitness it’s really good CU I like like the low intensity but like high volume of it aside you can insert plan I got a group ride where I’m going to sort of an hour and a half of junk that you can insert

That into the app and then it adapts your training for the next days and your plan accordingly cuz for your like mental enjoyment of cycling yeah I want to go ride an hour and a half of junk with people outside um that’s part of enjoying cycling and then the

Next day you’re back on the plan you need to do based on the r that you just did so the the goal post the flexible goal post guiding you in the right direction is what I love most about this app and you can try it too you can use our promotional link to

Access a free 30-day trial you don’t need to insert your credit card I think that’s a pretty generous trial period 30-day free trial and then join will notify you seven days in advance that you you can then have a six-month subscription also out of discount so all

You need to do is download the join cycling app in the app store or Play Store open the app and sign in without selecting an inapp subscription go to join. cc/ Lantern Rouge and enter the URL supplied in the show notes or scan the QR code to get 30 days of free

Training so I’d encourage you to to try it out see if you enjoy it as much as me and report back uh but yeah I really enjoyed join cycling so far and thanks to them for supporting the launch of our weekly show in particular all men’s Spanish 1- One

Races and mayor Challengers Benji these are the points Farmers so these are a series of races on mayor in myor or also in Valencia a couple before but basically they have like 511s in a row and the reason they’re not a stage race is they allow you to sub in and out

Riders uh each day depending on whether they they don’t want to race 5 days in a row and it also means there’s more points available uh so do you want to speedrun these Benji and I’ll I’ll dip in with the ones I’ve watched I’ll speedrun with the earliest one so the GP

Valencia or classic valenciana 1969 apparently that’s the name j want to Sprint ahead of kar and Timor Toyon back we spoke about Little T future racing team that they have quite a few family members but this is actually a really good family member cuz he’s already

Sprinting to Third on his first race of the season next one GP castalon also known as the laer match is winning an uphill Sprint ahead of uh one of the a deser boys that can actually pedal 1,000 Watts probably Pier G did you expect

That yeah I said him I said him I said this guy can do a th000 Watts you’re Jo cycling it even adapts my 1500 watts 50 seconds you think it wouldn’t but the app I mean there isn’t as much data for machine learning to adjust for someone that built that way

But Pier got I mean close he can get him in the train where’s Bennett when’s he start I don’t know I generally don’t know I haven’t seen him on the start list yet but that might change in the future my Orca challenges then like you said each team selects roughly 12

Riders and adaps their start list for each race depending on who feels like riding what TR Calia was the first one on the men’s side Simon Carr Simon G I don’t know anymore he outsprinted Sim Sim Sim okay Sim outs spined vov um that’s kind of the story after

Being on the attack with the legendary Alex aramburu so that had to be mentioned so first for there mnel as well cooking in these races he is but I feel like he’s now waiting to attack until later in the race from people compared to when he went early and tried

To drop everybody early in the past but hey he he lost so unfortunate for mcel hopefully he can win some more in the end in the in the future tropio Salinas next one this was a bit of a versatile Sprint at the end then we got lead out

For Quick Step by Luke Lamberti into like a a 90 degree left Bend but he does like a crit crit like dive bomb into the final corner with Paul man who was going to Sprint for a quick step in the wheel and man just holds off D so really

Strong performance and I don’t know I generally didn’t know if maner or lamperti was going to Sprint but I had seen some on Twitter about Johan mly which is like the one of the scouts saying that he had a really good period on the on the training camp so I guess

We’re looking at a not necessarily a new Al FIP but a versatile sprinty Al FIP well can I just say Co man like you look at this guy look at his results yeah or maybe maybe no like and you look at him sprinting and his technique yeah how the

[ __ ] is he going this fast exactly he looks like a a climber he looks like Mari van sanant sprinting it’s like Dany milon but he’s dropping 1,400 1500 wats he’s going out of the wheel he’s so uner like what the [ __ ] it’s unbelievable apparently he beat merer and some in some Town Sprints

Where fully going for it so yeah I don’t think Al pH ever sprinted that quick on the flat um one time yeah true but man that’s poor man yeah I mean perfect from Quick Step uh he’s very very exciting he’s a good Rider and lamperti he

Also he was supposed to go for it tonight I haven’t had a chance to watch that because it happened well I was asleep four hours ago 5 hours ago so Benji can fill me in but uh of course yeah that was uh a really good race and

Then there was tro TR monana where uh there was I mean it’s kind of crazy that you’ve got vlasov I’m very surprised yeah like vlasov fully going forward in these races in January it’s surprising though like you don’t see other guys who would be targeting the jro properly or two are

Doing this race he uh I looked into the power file closely like he he waited for the worst time to attack so he got alotti I think to to Pace really hard there a 14k 7% climb descent little false fight kicker and then desent to the finish and alotti Pace Pace Pace Pace

Pace there’s a FL section the climb and then last of attack like just after the flatter section when everyone’s heart rate went down 10 BPM um okay so he should have gone earlier but I don’t think he was dropping everybody anyway because he couldn’t get rid of mnal and

Van adelt who’s a 22-year-old on Lotto Destiny they relay The Descent I don’t know why people were complaining these guys walked it they walked The Descent they like they did they would do a quicker in training um and then it was a sort of it wasn’t actually a downhill

Finish like it was a corner downhill but then it was a kick up uphill and um yeah basically mnal was on the front got everyone up to speed on the downhill uh and then was kind of fried by the time it kicked up again and vade felt uh beat

Flov in the Sprint cuz he was positioned better in second wheel so vanille I think he’s got a bit of he seems decent with his race sense I think so as well he he knows when to bridge to people he knows when to risk it when necessary to

Risk it he he’s got a a quick Sprint at the end of these toer races as well maybe a bit of a a weakness in descending is what I saw on the race that came afterwards which we’ll now talk about tro poena because Igor aretta

Had built up a lead there he’s one of those youngsters that is on UAE now one of those guys that came from K farma that we two years ago might have said oh maybe that guy could end up heading to worldour here he is he uh he’s also

Family from that moar coach that got B I think anyway that’s the whole side story but eight felt bridged basically on the uh on the last climb I’m pretty sure towards aretta and dominantly to the point that nobody’s in the wheel of veld here but he he’s not the best descender

And you see that because when he drops areta and goes into the descend areta suddenly back after after dropping 15 seconds so note that down on the race I said before arieta dropped Romeo when they were dropped by group two and came back to group two on The Descent so he I

Think he’s a good descender like yep I think he’s a good descender indeed I think they were calling him a demon descender on the broadcast but that title is only on the side for one man only Alex samburu who broke his colar bone in this race so that’s a very sad

Moment did he do a descending I should yeah you shouldn’t actually it’s Alex dare in a contract year not Ling exactly I agree but next up those two Riders are basically well those two Riders are looking like they might get caught or might not get caught they’ve

Still got 20 seconds but then ARA slids out on a in a corner somewhere and then you’ve got van Val alone on the front then there’s some flatl before the finish and he gets called by the group where the cooperation was relatively okay I think MCN was doing quite a bit

Of work after aretta had crashed in front of him and who was still in the group Marius meher mostly known for winning no most performs on this day Benji he performs on his one day year cadel Evans Day January he was also seventh on tropio calvia the same week so he’s actually

Doing really well this week but I I will tell you though the day that I will most remember this man for will always be I think the junior World Championships the last man to hold rles we know yeah I bet he was in the break

Ahead but I think he was yeah yeah but that are details but anyway continue the story we uh we basically have the group ahead in total they’re trying to force each other to to yeah they’re trying to close each other’s attacks and Solair tries to go in the last kilometer Meer hover chooses

To respond to that which kind of Stomps to Sprint a tiny bit and poo Sanchez moar new signing we saw him at Burgos in the FTA last year out Sprints him at the finish line so dubsky for moar and Tonica celebration yes Mo they did that

So good um the Spanish guys always like it’s crazy right these guys a lot of them don’t win very much and they probably like they might not have won for like 3 years no win and they’ll have like their celebration dialed up it’s like they win every week they got ready

Bang he’s across the line doing the celebration like you wins like he M I love it h so that was good Sanchez is um was he the guy who dropped REO on stage 20 the Welter last year yeah he’s actually good he’s a good Rider um that

Was really nice Romeo was really good he he’s uh Ivan Romeo I think is the uh caros fona replacement I think Sanchez was second at this race last year as well yeah Pally remember something like that but anyway continue sorry oh even Rome he’s like a 20-year-old he’s like if he was

Belgian he would be a classic specialist but unfortunately he’s Spanish so he will actually just be a climber except he’s 6’3 so Carl verono or yeah Etc so um he he climbed very very fast on the van Feld win day so he looks like Barona’s replacement probably on on 50 60 Grand

Or maybe more but yeah uh I think he’s pretty good so that was the races L is he good on PCM no he plays p that’s the only thing I know sorry random fact kin T beat Alexander Kristoff who unox tried for all week and was not competitive uh in

Which is not a good sign I guess because like frankly if you make the finish in these races they’re not the hardest Racers and at this time of the year like a lot of the Riders hit their Peak Sprint numbers at this time of the year uh when they’re not as fatigued by

Racing so he like if he was going to be sprinting quick it would be uh it would be here but Tyson’s pretty fast I agree Tyson’s pretty fast was going to win more after last year but I also feel like when it comes to Kristoff the Sprint was not

Necessarily perfectly Led Out by unox as in th good mot really good lead out but Kristoff is not the rider that you allow to come out of your wheel or get to come out of your wheel with 100 meters to go right he’s the guy that needs to come

Out with 200 me to go get to acceleration and then beat everybody and it was just too late he like herin Tyson had launched from past them already when Kristoff started launching and then you’re [ __ ] there yeah then you he’s not going to win uh those are the new yoran races I

Would say takeaways are badelt I’m can to see how he goes this year yep poo Sanchez and some of the young guys on moar and M looks like someone you don’t want to be in a reduced group in with in the finish I think he is like very very very fast so

That’s my takeaways from it so many youngsters like even Nar was top 10 in certain stage already for EF were pretty solid we we did we didn’t sort of big them up but they were pretty solid I think a lot of teams here been like we got to get some points chuda

EF UA tter um yeah tter got some points I don’t think it’ll be enough to really make any difference in this cycle though uh in the women’s new yoran races in F fanic vill uh supposed to be c um but that was difficult uh NY r r one she’s on EF and

She was actually wearing I Luke might bring this up one of the TT helmets I don’t know if it is a TT Helmet or if it’s a road helmet that’s basically like a Pock Temple it looks this is going to this is going the UC is going to have to

Step in here and be like the these helmets get out of control and it’s not just them because they have like this little lid over their ears and I’m pretty sure I saw GNA wearing a cusk also with a little lid over his ears so

It’s like a new trend to kind of make Road helmets look more like DT helmets make them more arrow and on one end I love the Innovation they look [ __ ] horrible but they must be giving them some Advantage yeah it definitely it would it would give an advantage now whether you

Could wear it in a real heat I’m not sure but it certainly was working for the EF women’s team uh they were uh because valier has won the next day at tra Palma uh and then she they looked like they were going to go for hattick

At TR B bism but uh perso blocked Ru uh who was leading out gasparini the young Italian Sprinter on UA and uh obviously there was no sanctions so great start for ef’s women’s team they they competitive and won two of the three races uh and UAE pretty solid too as

Well as being solid I think with uh in Australia so let’s see how the EF women’s team goes new not new man well sort of New Management um Ezra Trump now yeah a bit extremely puzzling to me as in like we had this whole like thing between Ezra

Trump going to eev which was the previous manager of yo Vima women’s team and then just for the coming out that they were working at a lower level than amateur is literally the code he said which there has to be a seriously low level to be on that level and

I think the good conclusion is that we can have about this whole debacle that EF and Vialis are both starting off the season really well so they both seem to be in a good position at the moment it’s it’s early to take conclusions but I think it’s fair to say both are happy

With the start of this season I reckon winning kum’s great ocean roadways with Rosita rhal at Vima side and here we see y doing really well in the moror challenges yuo I want to say yes they were prominent and they won one of them but they could have won two Act three

Actually as in in the first one fanic they had four riders in the first 10 Riders but their lead out just didn’t connect their lead out had lost the first two Riders and their Sprinter had lost the lead out so it’s like they were everywhere in the group except where

They needed to be in tro Palma valer was Gone with pero pero was the one that launched the attack on The Descent and crashed in front of her and valer was alone as a consequence so if it wasn’t for that crash you might have seen a different outcome but hey it’s part of

Cycling thing on the bike otherwise you can’t win and this is an example of that so I think while they won with Gaspar they probably have a feeling of like ah there was something more in this but that’s it for me as well when it comes

To Mar challenge I’m curious to see what the next couple of women’s races will have and I think there’s a Valencia classic coming somewhere in the next week as well so curious what happens there in the Sprint uh the last race recap is GP M mares which was uh last night so I

Haven’t had a chance to watch it yet but I told the little quick highlight Genet uh bat B at the Finish gen yet is uh quite a versatile Rider just difficult for him to often win because he is about six with three without the biggest Sprint normally or uh but I really

Really like him as a rer luenberger uh zangler crash which I don’t like uh so I’ll have to check on his condition um but yeah I need sha Sprint is not amazing so not the best I generally didn’t expect him to be ban maybe because Bown Pro cycling

Manager back in the day was a good Sprinter but in real life this is TR yep he’s a TR guy on a nairo got to be like what the [ __ ] did I do wrong to sit out of season I mean I’m joking but also I’m not yep aren’t they

Npcc they are npcc and they put him back in the team I mean I’m not saying that’s even wrong like the I’m not saying that’s wrong right that’s the like that’s the rule the rules are it’s not before it is now if you get tra all now is doping right L

Correct me if I’m wrong but is now an adrv anop rule violation but it wasn’t so ban got his results from that jro and all but no sanction so like yeah like you’re not obliged I would not think to to um suspend him but Nao got blacklisted for a year so it’s

Like anyway um talking about n you haven’t seen it yet I’m pretty sure but you got to watch the Columbian national championships replay if you saw it somewhere no no I’ve seen L yeah holy in short it was a really good race because it was a breakaway with like former

Bahin Rider Alejandro ozorio that’s the guy that got kicked out of the team according to the Articles because of a breaching covid-19 rules it it was more than that it was like he just there was a lot of problems yeah oh okay well that was a public statement the one I

Mentioned but he was pretty strong in the break wave strongest rer in the break wave but from behind we had an attack when the Gap was 4 minutes I’m pretty sure six minutes somewhere in between from the pelaton we saw an attack of uh IG together with beral and

You know how the attack happened it’s typical because those two Riders were like doing the attack and kintana was in the wheel and he looks behind him to see who will take over and he keeps looking behind him nobody takes over and the two ride off into the sunset yeah

Oh same over and over again I forgot to mention the end of the race but hey go watch it oh yeah aor1 sorry1 um he didn’t get fired for being a bad Rider he’s a good Rider um or talented Rider but um yeah it’s it’s difficult it’s also

Difficult for guys coming from a different continent and then they’re young 22 years old and yeah maybe the teams can also do a better job integrating but v m as well I want to need to see how he goes I still remember stories from like gavia and contos back in

Quickstep that they were like staying with a Belgian family or something and conteras couldn’t really adapt to that as well as gavia and that’s why he ended up leaving the team and that shows that there’s teams that are trying to do everything they can but also it might

Not be enough for every single one of those riders that might need more support because they’re here without their family usually without any support outside of the team and if you’re fully dependent on your team then you also don’t have a third party really overlooking that so that’s kind of a a

Niffy situation sometimes how how are you adapting to the UK Benji it’s [ __ ] gold man I don’t go outside be colder than Belgium yeah um I don’t know how am I adapting to the UK I enjoy living here in one place now cuz it’s in one place

So L traveling that’s fun when when it comes to training I’m looking at uh at riding uh indoor more at the moment but I’m going to jump outdoor I think next week I’m going to try and visit boxill for the first time so let’s hope I find

It yeah on zwift it’s like in the London map and then I then I open the map and Google and it’s nowhere near is it near ding or something I think so near rate I don’t [ __ ] know what that is I had a dentist in rygate orthodontist congratulations

Yeah I don’t think he did a very good job um I can’t tell anyway speaking of of uh I guess British people what a segue Gant Thomas I knew he was doing the jro like I I know I think he wanted to do the tour like I don’t think he

Wanted to do the jro necessarily if the parkours were neutral but then when you see the ttks and how flat they are in the jro and the compared to the tour and then you see yeah like I then thought he’s going to he has to do the jro especially with how soft

Jro St list is outside of one uh one notable exception to that but then I did not expect him to do the tour double Benji because frankly he’s been terrible in his second grand Tours right yep like the Welter last year was a complete ride off I’m

Not sure when else it I have to check when else had happened but I have a and the problem is like in 2021 when he came into when he did the tour he wasn’t helpful really um as a domestique like I’m not really so when did he Do oh he hasn’t he hasn’t done so 2017 he did Juro two of double dnf both and he crashed out of both uh 2015 he did two of Welter double which is more common um and so yeah it’s a new thing he’s never done the jro never completed the jur to a double

Because he didn’t so what do you make of this I don’t know on one end I feel like I see the jro as the as the race he should go to be able to contend for a Podium so that’s that’s number one so

It’s a good idea to go to the jro and I feel like he expressed if I recall correctly that he felt like he missed out last year by not going to the tour France and maybe it’s more the emotional reason that he wanted to go to the

Tourto France because he missed out on the on the whole festival of it that that is the reason that he chose to do it because we’ve seen that inel is now like the fact that Bernal went to the VTA that shows that the hierarchy in the team chose it and not necessarily the

Best possible Rider at that moment and maybe for Thomas that’s something similar does that mean Thomas will be [ __ ] at the Tour of France not necessarily it might be that this might be the year where he can switch it but I’m more confident in the jro than for

The tour and in the tour I’d expect him to fold into a a more domestique role in my head at the moment that’s how I view it at the moment and I think he’s still valuable in that role I think he can offer something there but then he needs to

Be there were a stage in the VTA where he was competitive but he would need to be at least that level to able to do something for other in the team as well well the one stage where he was fighting for the stage win with that you can domestique

Somewhat yeah yeah yeah he yeah he could have domesti for Gana to win that one yeah exactly but it’s also go ahead I actually think if he focused on the tour he also could do really well there got the gravel stage you’ve got these really attritional stages in the third week uh

Where it’s just like an energy contest I actually think he would have I how Rodriguez and Pitcock will progress but I would be more confident saying G would get a really good result in the tour than those two um top five I would even say he could shoot for

A Podium okay at the tour like that Isa stage I think really suits him but the start list is so much stronger so then when you have the jro WHERE okay he’s he’s in second right now penciled in I I I I you couldn’t put Simon Yates above him based on recent

Grand Tour performance so or whoever’s doing it for Jak so I think it’s just the reality of the start lless that being said listen if he wants to go the tour that’s fine but I think it needs to be very clear that they got like who is the

Leaders pidock or Rodriguez that needs to be based on the reality of of shape as well and I yeah it needs to be not Steve Cummings saying G what do you think think we should do tomorrow um in the tour that’ be my concern uh so but I think yeah it’s

Still you don’t want to send too young a team you know because if roow can’t go because he doesn’t have the level you although you got kovsky and Castro they kind of they sort of want a few grand Tours in their life it’s interesting um it’s also like Wonder

Where’s arensman going then the he’s on the longest of the jro that I can find but I have no conf of that get with fani that said he will try to ride himself into the team of the jro which I’m not sure I would do that just Sprint with Gana you’ve got

Just as much chance to win a stage yeah yeah just and outside of that false he’s on the long list but if you sign him for for this team you have to send him to the J like if you believe in him you have to send him to the J I

Might not believe that he’s be the allout GC Rider but as a domestique he’s jro worthy oh they have a they wish a TT if they have arensman f g gner hater that’s the strongest T team I’ve ever seen exactly there’s actually they have a lot of riders you know to

Send and then you got the FR to I think too is doing the tour where’s Bernard B is he doing the the tour would anyos win the TTT World Championships if it existed in 2023 yes right or would show up I think any also L RIT and Dennis

And yeah visma lost I think I think anyos would win yeah if they didn’t Thomas hater tling GH It’s A arensman team’s ridiculous for uh okay that’s sort of the inos uh uh long list news there was also a tied to this sort of press conference by John allet which

I think you attended Benji who’s the new CEO of inos uh where he said that br’s actually not sort of fully disappeared he’s kind of still there as head of inos sport I think the reality of that is that if you’re doing a rebuild at Manchester United the uh time you have

To maybe watch footage of Leonard van edfield uh attacking in traa [ __ ] tramontana valenciana Mickey Mouse is limited how I perceived that press conference the way the answers were given and so forth felt to me like one I get really good vibes that he’s a nice

Guy which is Irrelevant for the job two I have the the feeling that he’s very good with politically saying the correct answer to the question as in he’s well media trained to the point that when he’s giving an answer like that [ __ ] off they like for example when a

Question occurs and someone else oh was there ever a a question on the table about enos’s certainty that they will keep supporting the the cycling team and he was like oh that question will never on the table which might be true but it’s also like there has to be someone

In the team that brought it up at some point realistically based on the on the last year so it’s like take everything with with a grain OFA as well yeah he come he comes from the McLaren structure the F1 structure so probably they’re a little bit more

Polished um but yeah it was interesting to hear that the the budget hasn’t gone down so that seems like the budget hasn’t gone down but a lot of expensive Riders have left so maybe they’re building a war chest for Remco or they’ve spend it all on

Extension they paid it all to mstar for Rodriguez you said is he’s he’s got a big he had a big Christmas I don’t know uh but yeah I think that was interesting to hear uh so maybe they they’re going to be very active in the transfer markets in the next couple of

Years y uh that was the news from G we’ll get on to a couple of race previews just a rapid fire I’ll do aula it is a pretty uh pretty similar stages all these really there’s like basically uphill Sprints there is one where it’s like 4K 4% but it’s not as difficult I

Don’t think as the one that V Gold beat Milan in uh last year that sort of finish all of the Sprints basically finish in these uphill drags which are quite grippy I think consone won one last year you got to get your timing really right and then there’s the stage

Five which is the sort of the main GC stage which is actually a very unique parkour you don’t really see too many like this which is basically flat and there has been Crosswinds before on this stage from alula Oldtown and then they do a 3K 12% climb proper steep stuff and

Then there’s a flat 8ks at the end which can also wind directions important finishing at 1100 met the sky views of harat uh um this was the start list for this is improved in terms of GC Riders quite a bit from the days of Luca mesg gets battling out

For second on that stage to Wago against formo against Guerrero who won GC overall last year so now Simon Yates doing it Benji no doubt because of the title sponsorship of the race organizer of job yeah for certain and I believe like Meier Milano runen those Riders on

The start list I expect runen to win one Sprint Milano to win one Sprint I feel like for the parkour there’s a there’s not much confirmation yet as in like I still feel like we’re we’re missing a few sprinters is how I feel when I look

At the start list I was expecting there to be more so maybe a team like Bora Who currently has three Riders on their provisional start list might include a sprinter here or there that we don’t see yet Kar might be able to do well on these on these uphill drags to be honest

These uphill Sprints so here is who tutor will send will this will will this be an arit decline party I hear Luke saying from the other room and uh yeah I’m kind of looking forward to the to the last stage again like you mentioned that one with the the steep

Climb and then the flat portion towards the Finish Line where Tim the cleric was so bloody good I think was it last year but it reminds me of it’s irrelevant to this but it reminds me of that stage in 2017 jir I think Stage 22 aago uh a stage where Dum ended up

Winning the Mal R Roa and neble was fighting him and I was depressed after that stage because that meant tuman had won the jro instead of NE but kind of reminded me because it’s also a climb and a flat portion so I like that Vibe it’s very rare in cycling but um yeah

Sorry about bringing up neble because I’m not so happy with him I’ll talk about it later anyway there’s Jason Tess here who’s decent for toal uh there’s zusan rovic watch out for him uh yeah careful if you you’re near him uh yeah has to win like no if no buts he has to

Win it’s their title it’s their second most important race after the tour to France and they’re sending him to you know no offense it’s a two. one like and you look at the other GC Riders here and it’s like our boy ler is and is the top

Three favorite rightly he’s like a young climber on quickstep so K to see how he goes but Simon Yates Simon Yates Finn Fisher black is on the provision for UAE he’s also dangerous so but yeah I’m also intrigued which of those like versatiles rulers might end up in

The top 10 like we have seen on this park I was also looking at soero and maybe Mesi true true soero yeah formo is probably going to be somewhere up there I remember him last time on this parkour as well he was good last year he’s now

At a different team I completely forgot which team he went to moar he went to moar yeah they’re building shandre is building an ital they realize they got to send Italians to the jro they’re not a summer team anymore yeah so but yeah y the pressure is on

Him he’s got I mean there’s Ben Herman I’d hope this is the sort of race he used to win uh where the [ __ ] is he these days codus wait what really Jesus I did not expect that did we do we did a preview on this didn’t we

Completely forgot we did I think mer will be the best Sprinter but it’s actually I’m Keen to see this race uh see some of the Sprints otherwise there a 12 de Bes I would say it has probably it has the strongest start list overall uh it usually it usually does frankly uh

Because it has TR it had inos last year um volen is pretty strong too but we’ll get to that yeah yeah but that’s a do pro sorry that’s a do pro no yeah I don’t know doesn’t matter inos are not doing B this year they sent tet

And tling last year and they were they were good in the TT so it is a little bit weaker uh but still mads Pon usually cleans up a Sprint here uh Aro is not turning up it was seeing him against Pon was great on this sort of Muk or Punchy finish last

Year but uh stage one uphill uh kick at the end uh B guard that’s just like got mads pson written all over uh probably cnra in second uh then there’s another one which is probably on too difficult for him that’s more cnra it’s the perfect finish for him because

It’s 900 M 9% 2minute effort uh stage three is a medium Mountain Stage Benji will say they’re just heals uh before a flat Sprint so we’ll see if the new Tre line up it’s send I can do it backwards medum Mountain buddy uh so we’ll see

Trek chasing uh on that stage see if they got a better team to do that this year then there’s a uh a 4 and a half K 4. 6% medium Mountain finish uh on stage four so again we’re seeing a lot of these to limit for pedon he I I think he

Can win all of them on his day except maybe the 1K 9 perent but uh and then there’s the uh final TT which is uphill to ALS Al 10.5k and then the final one actually has some steep passing at 3K 6% yeah can p win GC here with Bon uh yes

He can I think this is was the parkour where Stuart and betal were fighting for GC two years ago Muk canot being part of that I’m looking at GC at bjam Mana MZ Peterson the TT kind of riders what do you think of well bet you

All won this race before on this kind of Parkour but Alex seard is a good TTI right yeah but I I’m not sure about yeah he should be able to survive those Hills no top top 10 top five the hills the hills are pretty fast and gradual so

It just depends it’s the bonies and it’s if you lose 30 seconds in bonies I can’t see him making that up on peton in a 10K TT you know so for sure that’s the that’s the problem for someone like that you really have to be winning stages uh

As you said Bol he should be good in those sort of finishes but he’s hot hit and mess he came second in this race in GC twice EF got a strong team do they H TT should be pretty good but he’s going to have to win a stage solo which by the

Way Healey Healey’s got to go for stage three right yeah he’s got to go if they want to win GC that’s the play you can’t win that can’t the podium the first one too maybe like 700 me 800 me 7% F’s going to win it like that’s that’s fixed in stone but

You to get four bonus seconds there yeah you think the pure punchers like like KRA or like edol or like Magnus CT I think that’s going to be tough for him difficult to to get those bonies um so anyway it’s a Lov little race uh and there’s a decent number of world to

Teams going we need to see vcan as well I’m not sure if he’s doing provance but provance doesn’t have a Mountain Stage either I don’t think so that’s his first stage race of the year after starting in marsill uh last preview the best one this is like a grand tour level stylist

Every year uh valenciana we got vlasov kemna hindley Bora sending a stack team COV Vine we got Milan sprinting with morch and buo Matthews has already won this year Bill Bal really really nice race this is the race last year that R Kosta won and the final stage is really

Good every stage looks about the same frankly it’s got like a medium Mountain climb of varying gradients for the about 15ks from the Finish after a lumpy stage that’s stage one stage two about the same maybe a bit of a shorter climb stage three is more of a pure Sprint

Stage but you got to manag to break away well cuz there’s a steep climbing the about halfway through where a smart break could really get ahead and be difficult to be brought back the the main GC stage yes is stage four which is a funny Old Stage uh sort of quite hilly

All day I think it’d be over 3,000 M climbing 175k as they finish up valo which all of these Riders have done a million times in their December and January training camps in Valencia but they have a ramp pass climb The pgo Climb Alto the misery yes Alto Del Mis fun fact two

Weeks ago on the market of pgo I went to a Turkish kab store and it’s [ __ ] good so if you’re ever there that is a SP to go your go to um I just ate I just ate FRS with nuggets but my wife ate a kebab with FF and it

Was apparently the best thing in the world no no no the the Falafel kop was apparently really [ __ ] good and I generally I I trust my wife in that in that judging of the foods so I and it’s also like they had Mayo on the

Table of full thing so me as a Belgian with a bottle of mayo I’m always happy okay well they won’t be getting kebabs here because they’re starting a 20 minute climb at about 9% uh then it’s 16ks are rolling to the finish this looks really really good for Bora I’ll

Say like for camna and vlasov with that sort of climb 20 minutes and then that sort of Rolly finish very very very good for them to play numbers so um also yeah who do you like wi UA got a strong team too who do you like to who

Do I like to win this me personally I like vov to win it ah I think so as well actually I think he’s a good to to tr out there all WIS a stage by the way orwa yeah him versus match and he’s going to beat match on a flat

Finish and the Springfield is uh a little bit soft that’s and there’s like actually two Sprint stages yeah yeah there’s like a couple of Sprints like Milan against Matthews wins the flat on turn yeah he should he should but he’s got if he does foot shorter than him leading him

Out so we’ll see how that works um okay that’s all the race previews it’s a lot of racing coming up uh I think HBO or Max just announced not a plug obviously HBO Max just announced that um in the US at least you can watch a decent proportion of the races that

EUR Sport and Discovery or GCM plus used to have by doing I think the Bleacher Report like the BR add-on to your subscription you anyway there is a way to watch it in the US now while these Mickey Mouse races that we love dearly and hold close to our heart um and then

You also austal peacock and NBC Australia you’re [ __ ] no solution yet I don’t think so it’s so sad yeah that’s stuff uh the tdf Ando announced wild cards for uh unsurprisingly Israel CH chew oh Israel already got the wild card I think think and they just accepted it uh but the

Chuda bani and py with the discretionary wild cards to the jro unsurprisingly so an Italian team corch loses out because chuda uh yeah are a sponsor of the race also because they’re not good enough Tor is a better team so sorry but better team as well I don’t want to hear it

Q36.5 also a better team so if you want to be an Italian team and actually pretend that you deserve to be at the race then at least be good enough to be at the race yes that also counts for p coma yes they won a stage with the B but

That was a fluke stage so it’s not replicable but yeah they won with Fortunato but they don’t have Fortunato now they have pigoni which is a good Rider which is probably better than Fortunato in certain races so but Mo it’s also a team that is not World T

Ground T Jiro worthy in my opinion so it’s okay it’s politics but it’s also positive because we can always complain about oh they’re selecting the Italian teams but let’s be honest about it if they didn’t these Italian teams wouldn’t exist so I think that’s a positive side

Lotto decided not to go uh and I I checked their points because I was curious about what they did last year after after like skipping the Jal was it worth it or not and apparently they scored 1,400 UCI points last year during the Jal by doing those Mickey Mouse chat

GPT French and Belgian races so I guess if they do a similar route again this year when it comes to the schedule and also get similar results Which the lee didn’t win all of them like he he went I think he I think two of them and then

They got closed with plenty of riders that you wouldn’t necessarily think of immediately and if they can do that again I guess it’s worth skipping I guess yep uh for the tour lotto and Israel will be going by automatically and total and unox uh got two wild cards

There’s no other French Pro Cony team uh missing out so not as hotly contested with so many of the French teams in uh in world tour at the moment automatically getting uh getting invitation and so yeah hard to argue against toal and unex going there I would say look

Out for bani and airo I think they you know pelari and other Riders are quite nice um they’re actually not bad so I’d like to see them in in breakaways in Italy there was also you’re going to have to run me through this Benji your your earthw hero Vincenzo

NE acting a fool yeah actually like first of all step one he’s got this thing on Twitch called squalo TV he’s got a twitch Channel where he live streams uh a cycling topic discussion thing that he does with Pozo Vivo and some other people he’s on there and one

Of their takes was that it was the whole story we’ve heard millions of times of oh the zift academy people in races uh is it a good Pathway to get into cycling for like for Jay Vine back in the day for example like this Italian guy called

MAA gafuri is is a valid way to get into the sport because technique might not be there and they might be a danger to themselves and to other people and it’s only based on what pilo that they perform on zift and so forth and anyway that’s that’s like the the thing that

Started it behind the scenes but then it all like transpired when Mata gafuri the Italian we spoke about a writer that is in this year’s with Academy he is a finalist I’m pretty sure in that as well and I think towards the end of December I think 30th of December he posted a

Straa activity where where he beat one of ne’s KM he took one of ne’s KM and neble responded to that Bravo GAA this is a a Benji translation so it’s about 90% accurate but the most important one parts will be accurate I’m not putting neble out of in

A bad light he puts himself in a bad light here and he said okay Bravo gaffa after this you need to win three or four more ground tours and some Classics and you need to lose three kilos and then maybe you can start celebrating so sorry

But uh neble is a [ __ ] dick sometimes towards competitors in ground tours we saw it towards RIT I think when he said uh come take a look at my trophies uh back in back in the day when they were having their squirrel in the jro

2018 but then then later on like it was always competitor based it’s never been like as pitiful as an Italian youngster taking estava km then roasting him that he hasn’t won ground tour sorry but that purely his ego that’s purely ne’s ego that’s been hurt and he’s putting that

Out there and he’s being a little [ __ ] right now oh he’s 39 years old it goes to show like and not just NE but like it doesn’t matter how many grand Tours you in how races you in how many people will say you’re the best like if you’re an

Insecure person yeah you’re you’re an insecure person like you’re vzo [ __ ] NE man grow up I know but I’m surprised he’s not not more supportive of verito and is it because they basically did it their own way and forced their own way into the world of cycling because Frank let’s be real like

Italian cycling is not in a place where they can say verito is not good enough to be going at least Pro Conti like they have two riders in the top 50 yep um and like old school eyes like Bol he’s not ranked in the top 200 riders in the

World there’s like 30 other Italians ahead of so like maybe these new breed of data focused guys are the way forward um so now I’m surprised there’s so much push back against it because I thought they’d be supportive of other Italians trying to break in I know that brambila came on the

Squal TV to discuss it as well this whift generational gap between traditional versus new way to get into the sport and bambia was actually supportive of ver galito and and gafuri who actually both have a podcast together so they’re the Italian LR and Benji comes out of people having a podcast

Benji but um and beol and Ne were kind of against the the new way to get into this sport what do you mean against what do you mean against I [ __ ] no man like they like what do you mean like they’re doing something illegal or that they’re no that they’re missing out on

Important skills to get into the sport and to be able to ride in the pelaton but that we’ve gone over that do a didn’t he do a million outdoor races as well V it as well yes people act like the vine literally was like not allowed to leave his

House seriously that act like he was you don’t think he was also training and racing outside Bradbury just P podiumed Santos stood under last week as well the women’s race so they’re actually performing here they’re not dog [ __ ] Jason Osborne jayvine verito Bradbury m uh Alderman was also good I think she to

10 GC or near about like it’s a finished conversation if you got the work get through V with Academy you’re probably a pretty good Rider especially as it’s more competitive now so many riders know it’s you get on a pro team you get a pro contract there’s no like if you win the

Competition you get the pro contract it’s not like when you go to a training camp beat everybody but someone like NE says oh yeah but you know you don’t I don’t like you know the way you look and so you don’t get a contract no you

Get the contract if you win the prize so it’s like competitive now and so it’s a higher quality of people even and it’s also completely unrelated to what neble said in that straa comment I will not believe that that comment by neble is related to the his disagreement on the

Generational gap between traditional and new ways to get into sport it’s his ego getting hurt that’s the only thing I want to hear but I do have about K I don’t care I don’t know I don’t it’s more important than ground tours I guess but I do have to add important closure

Towards it they both went on squal TV afterwards to to kind of close the whole situation I haven’t heard that that conversation yet but the only right thing for neble to do is to to apologize for saying that in my opin this could oh so this might just be

Marketing imagine this is oh my God are they taking this is Logan Paul KSI they oh my God they’ve they’ve done it just got asked to talk about podcast by fabricating this big both podcasts we we spoke about Squall TV and the other podcast yeah I think they’ve done us here Benji

They’ve gotten a free plug by by fabric anyway or NE a 12-y old who knows um but I need to ask the audience should I forgive venzo e or should I not for his it depends on what he said in this in the podcast it’s Italian I will never

Know yeah oh Flags fly forever he won those you know remember how he made you feel in your heart when he won Benji um he lost lot of RAC too yeah true there’s a lizard he come up to the door he’s looking at me look

At him go where are you going buddy you can’t come in here big lizard um last topic before we get on to sort of what what else we’re doing uh this was very very strange but unsurprised sadly was E3 saxo classic who is kind of an independent race you don’t everyone

Maybe people maybe think that all the the Cobble Classics are owned by the same organizer that’s not correct uh they’re sort of an independent race and they have a history of pro uh promoting the race with uh they would think provocative most people would say distasteful or sexist uh posters and uh

They released a cartoon on their Twitter account uh last week uh related to W vanard uh W vanard won the cycle cross race when he kicked his saddle off his bike and they the cartoon had a photo of uh like a crowd That was supposed to be representing LGBT people and Benji you

Correct me if my Dutch is wrong uh saying the crowd was saying oh they’re enjoying this uh with the implication that they were enjoying it because W art saddle had come off and um comination you know yeah so how the correct translation is basically that the cartoon was saying the the title above

The cartoon was lgbtq uh people are enthusiastic about W fard finishing without a saddle oh obviously a homophobic comment and then the the audience Spectators in the background with a a rainbow flag above them um in in like the text balloon it said about van deool his rainbow jersey

Of course saying that they’re shouting about his rainbow Jersey which is also just a it’s not yeah right like that one’s less homophobic but it’s kind of like a cheap dick and I don’t like it and and also additionally it’s not [ __ ] funny man like it’s [ __ ] 90s

80s or over again and it’s typical R3 marketing cuz 2011 they posted a basically a a p magazine model which P magazine is kind of like the what’s that that magazine that was Playboy Playboy with all the naked women and so forth basically that was that

As like the the poster of their race which okay that’s that woman chose to be on that and so forth so that’s less yeah it’s it’s pretty degrading still anyway but then the next one was who is the fastest in hle bck in in 2014 with uh uh a female

Cyclists riding three other females like a horse well that’s the thing it’s not just using like attractive women to promote the race it’s like yeah also they’re shown in like a degrading way like that’s why these posters were like so distasteful and just straight up misogynistic like it’s not just it’s also yeah

Like it it takes that one step further and then there was like the the one playing on the peteran um when he I think what pinched a Podium girl on the bottom or someone on the stage on the bottom it like basically was replicating that so that this that’s the

History of the organization they were back in 2011 2014 2015 haven’t remembered the ones recently but they’ve got four was an old lady in the last in the last two years it was basically who’s going to be able to to kiss Eugene or something like an old women’s name um

A grandma and then the grandma was like preparing her lips to kiss the the winner or something on the Finish Line was that that was yeah that’s just was flamish humor yeah that’s so right um still bad humor but then they took it down and apologized for it but what is

Sort of curious to me here is right and we’ve we’ve got a recent comparon so this is a world tour race organizer this ain’t a small race this is a big race World Tour category race and when mtis Michels and kban Tyson uh put out their kbin T posted a

Photo of Michels last year in turang XI uh they the UCI media on Twitter they had a tweet out and a statement out the next day basically saying that they condemn all forms of uh discriminatory Behavior racist behavior and they referred it to the UCI disciplinary

Commission the next day yep and I would say this is in worse Faith even this poster is in worse Faith because it’s been it’s a UCI race it’s a UCI World Tour race and they haven’t said I’ve not seen anything why are the people who whatever tweeted this or whatever not

Referred to the disciplinary Commission in the same way y as mels was um now maybe maybe David Leal a because he’s in the united you know in the United Arab Arab Emirates he wants to get back to Europe first before he tweets about diversity and inclusion um doesn’t want

To condemn it there but uh I don’t know I was very surprised not to see them make a statement about it so because it’s it’s straight up a homophobic thing um yeah and it’s like how can you not like how can you if you’re a gay rider in the

Pelaton and you’re seeing a world toour race tweet dat and U just says nothing all right fair enough it’s also like cycling is not a sport where it seems openly accepted to come out as as gay and the pelaton as well I feel like because percentage wise percentage wise in in the men’s

Pellaton there have to be some on paper people that might not be straight which is perfectly fine but the fact that it’s not it’s also probably fine if they don’t want it public but it has a reason that they’re not necessarily being public about it in my head then as well

And that shouts to me that it doesn’t feel like a safe environment for them to come out with that and stuff like this makes it harder for for people that are in that situation to be open about that yeah anyway maybe something is going on behind the scenes the UCI

Saying what the [ __ ] was that you need to take that down I don’t know um but yeah just compare the two interesting to compare the two the two incidents uh because to me they B both fall roughly under the same bracket of behavior um true that that was uh our news Roundup

What have you got on the next week pji cuz I got a lot on but what do you what do you got on quite a bit actually I’m I’m going to go on my Box Hill ride as I mentioned earlier going to make a little video hopefully I’m not good at vlogging

Videos that’s just I need to you like I saw some of your Vlogs that might or might not be somewhere on the internet and you’ve got that going whenever I put a camera on myself I kind of don’t know what to say anymore when it’s not on a podcast for some reason so

I need to like train myself on doing that also doing that in public but I’m trying to do that for a new a few new videos um I’m also considering hiring an editor so that’s also I’ve already got someone that is very interested so that

Could make my videos a bit better so I’m focusing on that stuff but also I’m going to try and enjoy these races valenciana alula and so for those kind of races and what else is in my car calendar in the next week uh I don’t know I’m going to going to

Try and ride up more on I guess okay that’s fair enough you got a lot of races to watch what here’s my you you ready for what I’m doing I’ll fly flying out on Tuesday night fly Barcelona fly straight to Amsterdam sty into fisma HQ then go meetings

Then be so cooked and then I got fly back to Bara then to Andora then Mrs Rouge will meet me um it’s going to be an odyssey it’s going to be an odyssey and then I’m going to yeah go on two questions how is Toby doing Toby’s good enjoying this oh it’s

It’s actually scarily warm in Andor at the moment okay question two how are your horses uh Rogue bear is flying man it placed in Sydney like and Queensland City Saturday races multiple times so yeah Rogue bear is doing really really well is there a place where people can

Follow Rogue bear or is that does he not have an Instagram page like you mean like hasn’t got his own stra account his Instagram great great track great track work this morning Rogue bear and yeah give him a Kudos [ __ ] he’s look at his heart rate that’s actually I’m a I’m in

My should we create a straa for race horses so people can follow their race horse and see the track worker did that imagine you’re an owner you see [ __ ] my horse hasn’t done any exercise for 4 days what what are they doing with it Kil like on this horse what’s the whats per

Kilo human I don’t know they’re like 450 500 kilos and their V their V2 would be huge man their V2 would be huge Benji Luke just said was one horsepower [ __ ] off very good that’s how luk is banned per horse one horsepower per horse so yeah he’s going well and then

I’m going to be doing the before off Flanders trip I’m going to do the uh a threshold plan on join so once I get back in Endor I got that threshold plan ready to load up and so you can follow me stra doing that uh uh as well as join

You can follow people on join but I’ll be doing that join plan so I’m P for that why are you doing this why are you training why are you training like I was worse than you have do day mate I’m the one that needs to catch up you’re fine

I’m not what 190 in a day could be cold 190 in a day yeah what do you mean 190 in a day we have to do 190k in one of the days and that includes like the climbs around oh no told you this I swear I looked up

Flan challenge the 3-day one is 75k 190 140 and the 140 is got the steep hills I’m getting [ __ ] so it’s not 90 no it’s 190 that’s like seven hours plus for you that’s four 14 for me we’ll be out there all day I I’ll I’ll I have to put lights on

My bike well yeah we should do that anyway uh people want to send us lights uh anyway that’s that’s our first edition of the weekly show we really really hope you enjoyed it open to feedback on the format but uh it’s good to talk about different topics previews

Recaps of the smaller races we’ve got a lot of racing coming up this week so we’ll see you next week same time with a recap of all those races we mentioned as as well as any other ad hoc news uh along the way until then CIA