Can $250 Million Really Buy Cycling? | LRCP Weekly #2

In the second episode of our weekly show Patrick & Benji roundup the races of the past week, preview the upcoming races and discuss everything else that has happened in the world of pro-cycling.

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

Timestamps:
00:00:00 Intro
00:02:24 Race recaps
00:16:58 Race previews
00:29:09 RedBull acquires controlling stake in BORA-hansgrohe cycling team
00:43:42 “Saudi Arabia closes in on deal to create new cycling league”
01:03:38 Dauphine route announcement
01:06:45 Strade Bianche route amendments
01:15:30 Wrap-up

Welcome back to the lantern Rouge cycling podcast for our second weekly show a jam-packed episode this week with the Saudi potential investment in a breakway cycling League heating up according to a Reuters exclusive Red Bull’s acquisition of Bor red Boran grer uh proceeding for sure as it’s pasted uh

Various legal checks in Austria as well as race Recaps of things going on in Spain race previews visma lab jro teams a whole host of news we got a jpack show this week and it’s brought to you by join cycling this weekly show once again more on them

Later if you’re watching on YouTube you can see I’m back home I’m happy to be back home had a had a Monster Week traveling uh to from Brisbane to Doha to Barcelona to Amsterdam back no then down into Den BOS for meetings with visma uh visma lab and straight back up and

Then across to Barcelona back home to Andora yesterday what are you in up to Benji where are you firstly I’m glad you survived the Netherlands completely flat very different from your usual environments cold yeah colder than Australia and Andora I think Andora is summer now no that’s and is technically

Colder in the morning but today was it was t-shirt weather with sun in the day so I’ll take it here thank you for ignoring that I just said Andora in February but in my house it is okay I’ll accept that but uh for me it’s been

A w a hard week when it comes to training but we’ll we’ll get back to that by the end but it’s important for me to disclose that I’ve got a A Team agreement that I need to disclose uh so in the next couple of months I’ll be uh I’ll basically be providing performance

Consultancy towards Lotto Destiny uh this is not like a large scale uh collaboration but for a few specific races in the next couple of months so had to disclose that pretty important so you know that going into the next couple of podcasts and this doesn’t change

Anything when it comes to my view on how they ride and so for I’m still allowed to [ __ ] on them if they do badly and hype them up if they do well so same story as always similar as our yumbo vimo agreement a few years ago and that

Um that’s basically it but outside might change how I operate what’s sorry well Lee wins envelope and cleans up the visma lab super team [ __ ] what yeah going to be tough for me to show my face that Sunday afternoon you so yeah um we’ll see that’s good I’m glad you

That’s a good opportunity Benji glad you’re doing that uh but let’s get into some race Recaps we had uh a do pro stage race this week in two do ons uh I would say the strongest race overall was the alula tour which used to be called

Saudi tour but it’s been in the Ala region also a very important race for job alula as you can tell from their name think Jerry was even at the race in person they’re doing a training camp afterwards Simon yay was the favorite for the race uh we basically had uh a

Few normal Sprints one crosswind is stage and then a a sort of a couple uphill Sprints of varying degrees and then the GC stage is the sky views of hadat which is like a very unusual stage 3K 13% followed by a plateau which has crosswinds over a th000 m very unusual

You only see that in tour of Norway actually yeah but usually not that Steep and vanen won the first Sprint uh looking pretty good I think he’s pretty what is he 22 23 he’s look pretty fast yeah he’s very young we saw him the first time in this H the pr where um

Where I think well did well as well but I do feel like looking at the other Sprints throughout this week that he doesn’t have the acceleration as much and that I don’t know I don’t see him as a top Sprinter yet just because he W that first stage of the YULA tour but

Anyway next stage s Wen ski won which basically was a an uphill drag to a Sprint he won that ahead of H mulon stage three a flat Sprint basically we’ve got T winning ahead of arvit decline at this pointen is basically sick so he’s leaving the race after

Stage three not a good day for Luke AR de Klein losing yeah the tiger and out yeah but stage four medier winning once again this was an impressive Sprint he launched with like 400 me to go impressive and he he just won by like a little bit on Brian

Kar impressive but incredibly stupid like the DSM lead out was continuing there was no pressure from behind anyone jumping he knows he’s the quickest in the last 200 he knows he’s the quickest so there is like if he jumps even if coard gets to jump on him from 250 he

Going to still beat him and he’s like no [ __ ] it jumps at 320 and I think this is one of the longest Sprints winning Sprints in the wind the last two years y from I think yeah so Gabriel looked at his 21 seconds and crazy stuff cckar 3 he won so it was

Actually very interesting uh or very funny rather uh stage five was the GC day Yates attacked early his last man on the mountain was mzet so not the best and uh then he got counted by William Jr L Surf uh who looked very very good he was spinning a crazy high Cadence on

This climb he and Finn Fisher black beat the climbing record on this climb but they were caught by Yates and Co and micer actually Miker lost uh positions on GC due to Crosswinds uh UAE looked like they might win they got numbers Finn I think is probably the fastest

Sprinter on paper in that group but Yates one he got the gearing right on the downhill quick Sprint I think Finn was actually in two light gear in that Sprint and Yates timed it perfectly and won the stage in that many one GC so they needed that yeah lulan ja needed

That uh for sure yeah and that’s like the one thing that really stands out for me in this race the importance of the alula tour for Joo to be able to pull that off it’s kind of the UAE tour for UAE team Emirates and I wonder how much

Is the value of the alula tour compared to like a tour to France for a team like this because Gary Ryan Jerry Ryan the way you pronounce it I don’t know but before Gary like the Snell from SpongeBob Gary Ryan anyway Gary Ryan before the stage set to8 apparently this

Is one of the most important races of our of our season you got to this is an important day and that’s what all the all the sports psychologists say the best thing to do before an event is is to have the owner go up to the athlete

And say don’t [ __ ] it up buddy that’s the best thing to say right Le favor Le favor before every single one. one race he goes to every single quickster primer and saying this is the most important race of your life super a classic the most important race of your life it is I

Mean cuz you can’t only control what’s happening today uh but they did get the job done uh they probably would have been hoping for another stage or two Bes also happened uh stage one cancel due to Farmer protest there actually a farmer protest they blocked Andor from the French side for quite a

While yeah they blocked access from France to Andora how many roads or and well one paved easy there’s also the contrabandista roads so like if you look at sep straa he like is always doing the gravel rides in the random uh smuggling routs in but uh yeah they’re also

Blocking the Spanish side on Tuesday anyway stage two it’s like a 900 met 2minute effort and axel laurance beat mads pson which is very very impressive the U23 world champion Pon W flat Sprint the next day then Samuel Laro on Van risle Ru if I’m not mistaken gets the

First win for a van risell uh in the Pro Pelon and it’s not a decathlon Rider it’s a a van russle R which is a French Cony team from like the Le area in Northwest Northeast France he beat Biser and deont in the break that’s going to

Be their biggest win for a while yeah I I I don’t know exactly how long it’s been but I recall it being like 5 to six years since they won a race at this level and um to be honest V has been a team that’s been along for a a long

While but to deliver on this level that’s pretty crazy it was pretty interesting that mnus cord wins the Sprint behind with vurg really pushing the breakway beforeand for yox but I I don’t know if that’s a clear tactical mistake because P someone El in the group so they might not have known that

CT would have won that Sprint anyway but anyway next stage we’ve got voala winning the TT this is the final stage ahead of Peterson but it would depend on the actual seconds that voala is ahead of Peterson who wins GC and Peterson ends up winning GC because he had enough

Time going into this time trial really good time trial of vocal and to be honest really good but um Pon road is an own skin in his own skin screen and I remember that in Bes in the past that’s happened before no I don’t know what

In the tour you can’t do that I mean listen probably if they want Pon a former world champion to come it’s a two to one race let’s remember like you know he can wear his own skin suit I think they don’t they’d rather he won the race

Overall then they forced him to wear the skin suit would be my guess uh so he wins by 2 seconds that vocal on TT you got to say given this flat at the start is he was two seconds slower than ganner’s record on this so I think he

Must have absolutely nuked the climb and this guy’s 5 minute power is really really good and um he was flying I’m not sure he’s going to turn into who they think he’s going to turn into I think he’s a different Rider but that doesn’t mean he’s not a special Rider I think

He’s a really special Rider who do you think they think they he will turn into and who do you think you will CH the sentence you know what I mean he’s French and he climbs okay the next to Def fr’s winner oh no I’m being I’m being disingenuous that’s being unfair I think

They probably will be focusing on him becoming a GC Rider rather than someone who can win Le age best on Le age and I would say right now he looks like someone who can Podium Le age best on the age uh if he can improve some uh

Endurance we’ve only really seen it in Easy races so far but is yeah very very impressive uh Pon though wins GC I think he missed out on it before valenciana finished today this race perhaps not well not perhaps definitely not as interesting as it was two years ago when

Uh vlasov was leaving rco in the in the literal dust on a 20-minute climb and it had a brilliant start L enrik Mass Val Verde here the GC favorites were mcnalty and vlasov like in meor stage one bani did a trao baraki in the Breakaway and

Took a GC lead but they actually lost 25 or so seconds because of a wrong turn uh and T is not a bad Rider who would just he’s not a guy who just insta dropped the next day moric attacked on The Descent he had attacked on The Descent

The day before blov entered the Descent second wheel and I think he just can’t hold the wheel and once Mor is gone he’s gone so uh yeah strange strange anyway stage three Milan won the bunch Sprint he literally was the best Sprinter here by heads and shoulders above everybody else although

It was cool funny to see KY leaving leading him out stage four Benji mnal got his tactics right he’s messed up a few times he hit him on the uh the misery climb he hit Beto just when he and vlasov were messing about and brago was on the radio over the crest exactly

A strong stage about mnel because on paper you’d say vazov should be able to compete with him and so forth on this parkour the the race was shortened supposedly was supposed to end on the valde ball climb but they ended it basically 20K earlier on the alto Del

Misat the misery climb like you mentioned because unfortunately uh a driver of the ilas I don’t know the second part of that name of the team uh a driver of that team passed away unfortunately at the finish line so that’s why they chose to finish a stage early but what also

Shocked me after the stage is that delli was still fourth Inc C ex exactly like he’s not a bad Rider he’s and bani are cooking this year you got to watch out for bani they’re winning a jro stage this year if they get that tactics right they got

Good Riders yeah pazari is actually good he’s rumored to go to Bora more on them later uh last stage will B won a fantastic Breakaway win it was a it wasn’t as good as last year either where there was chaos in the last stage and

Ruby KOST or one t Gart did 8 WS per kilo for 15 minutes it was yeah basically a breakaway he dropped everyone on 50ks from the finish and he’s a good time Tri we’ve seen that with a second in of Welter TT before behind RIT and he takes his first pro

Win with Tre unable to chase him down when Milan Milan should have gone at 1K to go Pursuit style CU he when he opened up the tap for the Sprint yeah when he open up the Taps he put 20 he put 10 bike links into everyone without trying

He would have he would have won if he went at 1K to go I fully agree it’s a first F I had at the finish line that he should have done the bamer classic spers move and he would have win this won the stage but with h I’m much much happier

That will bart this stage first Pro victory not necessarily a rider that is likely to win many things in the future again but to see him win this to see lascano in the pellaton also playing around a bit I enjoyed that and I enjoy will bart winning I enjoy seeing tonelli

Win on stage one so the breakway wins really were to stand out for me in this race that’s the race reviews uh decent racing maybe not the stronger start list a lot of the big guns are holding uh holding their cards close to their chest until the uh ones coming up like and

Luia normally valenciana in the past had a bit of a stronger start list but before we get into the previews of the races coming up a word on our uh show partner for today’s episode join cycling which where you can get the most out of your power meter or your heart rate

Meter uh monitor for training by using the join cycling training app with true adaptive training plans that adapt to your training history and progress but most importantly and particularly for me this literally the recovery plan that I finished a week ago on join cycling is the first plan I’ve just about ever

Completed like cycling plan like I am someone who probably knows above average about power training training threshold zones I’m subject to the same like Bibles as everybody else where I just end up riding around junk all the time with no no structure whatsoever and that plan I completed was the first time I

Was able to complete a monthlong plan just about ever and I found the guid post uh of the join cycling app really useful for that and the plan actually made a lot of sense to me and so upcoming you can also if you have an event either a one day event or a

Classics event I’m tossing and turning which one to choose which plan either the one day plan or the classics plan for our uh uh Attack Of The flandrian Challenge in March you put in the date you put in the meters of climbing for your event you put in uh how long it is

And it generates a plan it’s catered to that event uh and if you want to try it out yourself to join cycling up L Rouge C podcast listeners can benefit from a 30-day free trial period absolutely risk-free you don’t even have to give your credit card details just download

The app uh and then use the URL supplied below or scan the QR Co code and get 30 days of free training with join cycling so don’t tast take my word for it try it out for 30 days and I’m sure you will like it and see good results so thanks

To join cycling for uh supporting the podcast and this weekly show we’re still in in the desert Benji the UA tour women kicks off uh this week with the same stages as last year if I’m not wrong yeah basically three flat stages and one stage of jela feed on day three so

That’s what we’re looking at the star list is pretty uh pretty Bare Bones for now we only have little track with a confirmed start list including realini and long borghini so those are the first two of last year so happy that they’re back let’s hope arini is the fullon

Leader this time hopefully let’s see what happens in the echelons though I’m honestly just looking forward to Weis and Cole if they arrive for the Sprints that’s the one thing I’m looking forward to plused as well so I’m kind of hyped for this one but we’ve got some other

Races on the menu as well this week right we do and yeah I want to see realini cooking on that parkour uh free Rini Unleash the Beast uh I want to see yeah L Surf laid down a gauntlet for small diminutive climbers in the desert

I need to see really go one better and wi the win the stage for them tour Colombia is back this is we really wanted to talk about this because this is a fantastic race that has been away for a was away for a while back and if

You remember the some of the original videos I made it always gets the most stacked start list which I think you know credit to Colombia because you look at the two onund you don’t it doesn’t get the best Australian cyclist there every year uh going back for it and uh

This year it’s got Bernal Cara is not Colombian but South American uh Rivera who else is doing it uran uran yeah it’s like gavia cavish is a strange one Tara it’s you look at the EF team and it’s like it looks like a jro team A J winning team are you telling me

You’ve mentioned all these climbers and all these sprinters and so for but you forgot got the legend himself Oscar Seeva at the age of 79 that’s what I’m guessing at least his age at this point there’s also the Estonian team there kind of standing out like a sore thumb

Amongst the South Americans uh as well as corch being there watch out though just this is very deep in the weeds watch out for Jonathan kaiso he was on EF as well as his teammate kamaro but watch out for ciso he’s on petrol like we like petrol um on it’s a

Mexican Cony team if I’m not mistaken andar go too yeah and he just won a race he won uh some Welter alir yeah yeah he just won that so just it’d be funny if he beat the EF guys uh but anyway mate Serio was at

This race what the hell it’s going to be great new Columbia new Columbia sounds like a political party yeah Janson Pantano is a DS um it’s always a like crazy race with sometimes two crazy Spectators but the fans absolutely love it and get around it all the stages are as you know

Predicted at about a million M altitude so even if it’s like a 3K 6% finish it’s so high up that it ends up being really really hard the the main Mountain Stage is the Delino maybe it’s 30.2k at 6% uh so a really really long climb we’re going to see kintana and Co

It’s a great gradient because it’s drafting matters teammates matter and tactics matter but it’s also hard because it’s at such high altitude so I’m looking forward to watching that it appears to have uh 10 leaders jerseys I I don’t know if they’re actually all one in the race cuz Luke

Said that only four leaders jerseys areow low but they have I’ll read them all out leader of the race of course points leader okay Mountain leader young Rider all right that’s the four normal ones Sprint Especial don’t know what that is stage winner best Colombian best Foreigner best teammate and favorite of the

Fans six other jerseys they must be I don’t know man like if we look at the jro for example they have like the jerseys in the race but they also have the the classifications outside of the race they are presenting this as St jerseys based on the graphics I’m

Looking at so I’m expecting 10 jerseys 10 distinctive jerseys in the race and if I won’t have them I’ll be heavily disappointed because that’s pretty epic like the meor Colombiano is probably nah not probably is potentially going to be won by the leader of the general classification

Which means it might be it’s going to be every lead like for example if K if Bernal is first or something kppa second then another coloman in third if uran is that third Rider uran’s going to wear that Jersey while cupas will wear the foreign Jersey while Bernal will win the

Leader of the general Jersey you’ll have three riders with different jersey in the top well I think what they’ve done yeah because to that point this basically means they can get all of the big stars on the podium every day cuz the race leader is going to be

One of the big stars and then if Carz wins then that means there’s still the best uh best Colombian Jersey available to like Burnal or someone and then you’ve got uh like best like favorite of the fans that’s going to be the leftover that’s going to be kintana if he’s not

In the leader Jersey so ran I’m telling you oh yeah this is the first this is the test of uran versus kintana popularity we’ll see uh but yeah I’m looking forward to that race how I’ll watch it no idea but um I’m sure probably on YouTube Somewhere uh

Probably not probably the race with a stronger start list coming up this week I would say is the uh fig figuera Champions classic which is about it’s 220k long and has a start list that looks like leage B on leage yeah has a length just about that long and a parkour about

That long this is the race to watch this week with Remco Almeida remco’s got a strong team boli who came second in lombardia now little Tre uh a strong EF team this is the race I’ve got penciled down to watch this week yeah same thing and looking at the way this has grown

This race last year one. one rise now one pro rise only existed for the last 2 years now 2023 was the first edition if I recall correctly and the star list is just major like you mentioned all the names and it’s also got a parkour that can create different scenarios and I

Don’t know I’m looking forward to see all the writers that we haven’t seen this year like at MCO start their season here so this should be good I’m definitely going to watch it uh we’ve got two more races that are starting this week outside of Spanish one ones

Okay I’m holding on a glass Drive doing this they’re a different team now right s subo is that what their name is I’m not certain yeah they’re called saull anola and why don’t they have the good R doing it merera good question maybe he’s still in Southern America at the

Moment yeah anyway here and dnf so okay fair enough may he doesn’t want to come anymore yeah maybe uh okay uh other race to Prov returns but unfortunately I think it’s uh a lower categor it’s two one the start list is weaker there’s less World Tour teams and it doesn’t have a

Mountaintop finish this is where normally where we would see kintana go nuclear on Shelly Renard which is like two3 away at two on Mont Del they yeah they don’t have uh that in this race although they do have a couple of nice stages for the young talented French

Rider Axel zangler although I’m not sure he’s doing it because he might be going to Oman um we’ll have to see I think he is doing proval but because I got that Manos finish where Gana was good against al leap that really suits him but this

Uh yeah I don’t know but Bes and this Benji are both missing something a bit like a proper 12-minute 15-minute climb in my opinion I reckon I agree it’s kind of I want the toovar kind of stage in pance yes the kind of M versus whatever stages

Those type of stages I need maybe I feel like pance has those climbs so they should probably be able to do that but that that doesn’t mean that the stage aren’t going to be interesting like manosas Kar as well last year if I recall correctly so he’s not on the

Provisional start list let’s see yeah true but yeah I’m also provas has dropped down a little in my in my list of races in February there’s other races that are more intriguing and talking about that om man’s going to be a bit more intriguing for me personally

Because I feel like there’s one flat stage and three Muro finishes and one medium Mount finish is that a correct classification you reckon yeah there’s like those Kat and YY Hill stages are quite hard I think ulissi or herard won one last year and then herard backed that up in the Welter

And then yeah Green Mountain is brutal like that’s where van seon and and Jorgenson did very very big numbers last year uh CU they basically walk up to the base of this brutally steep climb which has had had the greats on it it’s had I think SPAC or uh

FR purito and van S I believe will be back this race starts later in the week uh so we don’t have confirmed start list yet but I will be ke to see uh a if merer continues here because he obviously did Saudi uh or whether or whether yeah maybe he’s gone back and

Maybe they want mag because if magier if he can get around some of these the the rolling stages he is going to be tough to beat by anybody else on this start list uh I think he’s probably quicker than Kar just about I think it’s a mistake that

Estana might be sending lenko to tour Colombia instead of tour of Oman because these stages shoutlet and go for me yeah but then on Green Mountain he just gets ruin but then who’s going to ruin him you know I I think I’m surprised van felt’s not going

If he’s not doing this race to be honest like I would have sent vanel to win this um given as well yeah like I really don’t see anyone going first of all he’s really Punchy so he could maybe take some bonies on the other stages and

Secondly I think he just straight up win the Green Mountain Stage so I would have expected him to be at the start start but as I said uh it’s quite a away in the in the future uh that is the the previews of the races this week

So we got a fair few on and then the week after the really big one start like alav andalia classic hyen and uh Grand communo a bit later so but these are yeah some nice races particularly UA toour women uh other news Benji onto other news the big one uh this week I

Would say probably the the biggest news uh is the non-announcement or the non contest of anybody in the Austrian competition oh court that Red Bull uh could acquire uh a controlling interest in the Bora hansra parent company basically a controlling the Bor hansra cycling team they own it uh now shortly in the

Future kind of like Bora they they did a press release saying it’s happening but there’s no real de like it’s a two liner just about and and there’s no real details on what it’s going to look like yet unless I’m mistaken I feel like the initial rumors

Of it came out on Twitter when I think IA span on Twitter posted that they found on the internet the page unlike the the FCA the aan competition Authority that the acquisition was like applied for and then Bora responded to that with like uh oh we can’t really say

Anything about it because it’s still being handled by the authorities and then when it did they said we’ve got the green light but we’ll talk more about it in the future and those words were exactly the following we will present further details of our partnership in

The course of the season so it wouldn’t shock me if it’s like announced surrounding or just before the Twitter front or something that area when the hype in the season is bigger than early part here but it’s also something that has went that has gone into like Steps

Here because this this doesn’t come out of nowhere Red Bull’s been been in the Bora environment for quite a bit as in they sponsored the borans growa junior program Junior scouting program that program is called Red Bull Junior brothers and I think two of their Riders

Went to um to the U23 team that they work with which was team AO a bu if they are still doing that I’m not 100% certain because they are also working with a few other teams now but in addition to that Red Bull’s got many cyclists in this sport wild not

Pitcock wearing wearing Red Bull helmets zo boxit on the women’s side onon poer who is riding for Bora those are the two like previously that’s what happened but now with that controlling interest there’s so many questions CU on one end a lot of people were rumoring and as a consequence there were literally

Articles coming out based on just the the thought of the fact that there’s people riding around in Red Bull helmets and then red will being invested in Bora hansgo with 51% in the future with a St in that I don’t think this will have any consequence towards W finard or pitcock

Transferring over to bord hansgo or something just because they were a a Bora helmet uh a Red Bull helmet I don’t see that no although it does mean the team has more money yeah so it’s possible they can get Riders of that caliber more re more realistically and

Often cuz they have more money rather than oh hey you’re now also sponsored by owned by Red Bull let me just change teams mid contract like pitcock and vanard are under contract um so yeah I don’t I feel like the Pitcock Red Bull part collaboration is much more

Significant than the van art one don’t you don’t you reckon like P is it CU pck does like the mountain bike stuff more and B is really pretty much Road focused now I think so but I’m not sure if that’s particularly a a bigger agreement for that sense that

Might just be because pitcock does slightly crazier stuff because we still remember that that wild not when the cross the line with his with his wings flapping about in the yellow Jersey in in C two years ago so that’s still the case but I agree there’s definitely more

Money I think there’s also other consequences to this and we’re going to know more of that in the future future but the merger is classified under economic sectors other sports activities and creation of advertising campaigns and at last spot I’m like wondering is that related to advertising on the Bor

Hro sht as a consequence or is that more related to the fact that they’ve got this whole media business Red Bull they’ve got an award-winning media media house that creates content with their athletes that creates content in general I think there’s some kind of Red Bull TV kind of

Thing I just expect better team content better sponsorship activations better PR stuff like if Red Bull was in the team when RIT was announced it would have been handled differently in my head yeah of course like Bor got had the Netflix producers follow them around for season

One and then they got cut out of the show cuz it’s too boring so like Jesus well I mean it was I’m not it was that’s what happened um or they couldn’t find a storyline that was intriguing is another if you want to put it that way so obviously Red

Bull they’re here to make they’re a marketing company so that’s been said a million times so I’m sure they will want to boost uh that part of the team and they probably see a nice canvas to do so with uh a team that’s yeah progressed well uh it’s won

A grand tour recently and it’s got good Riders and it’s got It’s doing well at attracting good Riders to come to that team and it’s got good equipment so maybe they think well we can come in uh also you know they’re Austrian and uh so everyone’s they’re all German speakers

In management presumably so maybe they can come in and really boost that part of the team um they see an opportunity there uh but otherwise I don’t know when it’s Jen pre- tour they Chang team name and change it all change the Jersey change pre pre change team name is difficult he

Because what happens to the existing agreements got contracts yeah they’ve got contracts to be in the uh name sponsor stuff like that to add Red Bull to that kind of reduces extend what sorry one just extended too so yeah that that makes me wonder whether they already knew about that situation going

On or whether that will impact the value of their sponsorships in the future it’s so many questions behind the scenes but that’s something they can deal with there there were also just there’s also feedback on this like people shout sportswashing but I’ll be honest yeah of course there are some sports watching

But uh they’re an unhealthy brand uh Sports ring being Sports washed in sports that’s how I perceive those Commons but they’re so much worse in the sport than Red Bull joining in my opinion like if we’re going to on this scale of sports watching and cycling this is on the lowest end I’m

Not even sure that counts it’s just like marketing a product yeah buring sponsoring on the on the butt of aolo that didn’t last for that long did it but it was funny it was funny I mean I noticed it yeah listen if if Red Bull

Can’t buy a team and sponsor a team then wait good luck question so when Fortunato won or when someone of a YOLO won a stage contador was celebrating right in his video after the stage yeah yeah I have Rewritten that history in my head that he was eating a

Burger in that video is that wrong or right I think you’re hallucinating see the Burger King ad has done something to my head well what’s what’s YOLO what is what does that company do uh I only know that they sponsored the J and for the rest I don’t know Electrical Company what

Absolutely no clue what does balty do is that Hungarian food I don’t [ __ ] know one of them something to do with Hungary and meat that’s why they sound come eat see like at least BG at Le Red Bull you know what it is De cathlon you know what it is

Leedle you know what it is uh what’s Burger King you know what it is uh so I would say you got Global Ambitions it makes more sense yeah I’m K to see what happens here I think it’s good good sign for the sport overall because I honestly and this is going to

Go into our into our next topic maybe but uh I honestly hear con all the time cycling’s dying cycling needs to change and like yeah it is annoying as hell that I can’t see half the races in February and that needs to be fixed but

That is I think e should be easily fixed with some people getting their heads together but like it’s World Tour team folded last year it didn’t um lots of them are on the look at these proy teams coming with more money chuda Q 365 I do feel like and maybe that’s just

A part of the sport that there’s always someone on the brink teams are strl too much well they also have to the competition keeps spending more and more yeah I know but like if you compare what cyclists get paid like the top 20 cyclists to the

Top 20 rugby players and the Rugby World Cup I’m sorry was is a bigger event than I it’s a big event and big Eclipse not biger than the Tour of France I would I don’t know about that maybe it’s a perspective from which country you’re from but but from my

Belgium perspective in France I’ve never even seen a rugby match in my life yeah but it’s probably not in the top 10 sports in Belgium people in Wyoming haven’t seen T of France in their life either wow I certainly haven’t seen a d Nira corser um yeah they probably also

Watch theug my point is like the top 20 CCL get paid better than top 20 rugby players uh by a fair way and so I’m like well if they if the salaries are pretty healthy and have grown a lot in the last 10 years a lot

Then is the sport really in such di cuz cuz I swear I’ve seen an article every week that like the sport is on the Brinker collapse how important is the best rugby player on a team compared to the best cyclist yeah true it’s like you can have

The best CR like Brian L on the Wendy’s team or yeah good luck with that reference um or yeah like the French scrum half I don’t know what he’s on uh or the best new Zeal I think best New Zealand player might be on a million and they’re one of 15 and

It’s they can’t impact the game the same amount as a basketball player like LeBron and or curry in one in five or one in basically one of one sometimes in cyclers so I take your point um but I’d like to still compare the 100th ranked Rider on PCS to

The like yeah 100th rank rugby player I think it’d be interesting uh if if we knew the salaries of both so I don’t yeah compared like obviously if you compare it to football they’re not getting paid as well I’m not saying they should be paid less either it’s not what I’m saying

Very dangerous sport Riders can die or be permanently injured and they train I would say harder than athletes in those sports that I’ve mentioned as well uh but salaries have gone up so like where’s the money coming from from if the sport is on the brink as I said uh

Which Segways us Benji into wait I think my final comment is that I do think an impact to that is that the teams that are not on the brink are the ones that are continuously causing the salary to go up while the teams that are on the brink are Contin continuously trying to

Have more money to try and still struggle because the the bigger teams have made the average higher if that makes sense but that’s just my last remark right so I take your point so inios Bora UA visma I’ll put quickstep in there too they basically pay seven five to seven

Riders each which is about 30 Riders and that just blows salaries out and there’s the other teams just cannot compete for those top 30 Riders on salary and there’s just a completely different salary house between the teams uh I can see that yeah if inter marhe had had

Vingard and he wins the tour they either somehow get it to keep him either somehow get a new sponsor to pay his whole his salary to match whatever offers he would have gotten or then he would just go as soon as yeah well it’s not comp Pi 38 yearold cost to

Yeah but the fact that they couldn’t financially keep him for the salary that is probably worth I don’t know but then I also then I also think like if you’re EF why are you paying ruy Kosta yeah I agree like what is that doing for you um reminds me of the iing

Transfer worse he he’ be he’s former world champion Benji he’d be getting paid more than finally I agree yeah uh anyway I I agree it’s not so clear there is an inequality amongst the the rich teams and if there was Revenue sharing which is then that would filter down and

Then they wouldn’t be able to uh but yeah just just my point I just Devil’s Advocate pushing back that us all doom and gloom all the time uh but speaking of things that might change one of the big the big news this week in terms of changing the sport was the uh the

Reuters exclusive this is their second exclusive they seem to be getting the the leaks or the news on this uh their headline is Saudi Arabia closes in on deal to create new cycling League uh hyphen sources now that’s you but they’re not very clear I’m not saying they should name their sources

But they don’t even really name like where those sources come from uh like whether they’re from a team from PF anyway the potential investor is an investment firm according to them owned by Saudi Arabia’s public investment fund pif so yeah essentially uh Saudi Arabia’s public money called srj Sports Investments which

Was uh they basically created as as a subsidiary of that investment fund to focus on Sports so it’s going to be specialized in uh investing in sports uh and the potential investment is supposed to be 20 50 million which what does that number when you hear that number what what do you think

Benji I think that’s not that much yeah exact I agree right like to be clear I’m not earning 240 million I will never in my life earn close to that amount but never say never I really doubt it podcasting who knows what could happen I don’t know man but I will

Say if we take a look at first of all the cost that teams have right now when it comes to budgets if you put the budgets of all teams together you already call an amount that is larger than that I reckon or close to that or roughly around that team Welter teams

What was the average it came out like 25 mil 28 27 mil yeah 25 to 28 mil so that times 18 is higher than 240 if my basic mths is correct yep that that number is right there yep but it’s not necessarily that’s not necessarily the

Equ that we need to make it’s how much is it going to cost to set up the system that they want to set up which is basically a breakaway League oh zero the cost is set that up yeah you just do crits around uh track and re

Add I fear that it’s going to be more than just zero crits around appor or something luk will be happy around the area but no I agree to your point like it actually is not as much money as I thought now I don’t know what the cuz

Like the live the fund for the live cuz we’re always comparing this this is like to live live golf they wanted to get a seat at the table with the PGA and so they got this huge pool of money and they uh they basically bought up big

Golfers and then the PGA said if you go to live you can’t do the master or can’t so you can do the master you can’t play PGA events and they were getting guys on 100 m contracts uh and they’re getting multiple guys so like that that pool was

Way bigger eventually the PGA after saying you’d be banned a year or so later caved in Despicable fashion and merged with uh Liv so so they basically just folded after the Saudis burned cash question number one you’re saying that in Liv golf they basically paid for golf

Players to play in their league yeah play league yeah the teams are part of setting up this project so I would guess that you’re not necessarily directly paying them aren’t they just getting a share of the revenue in the idea of the setup well this is where it gets tricky

So we’re going to Deep dive into this so this article so Richard pler gave an interview with someone I I want to luk will look it up he didn’t exclude radio radio cycling radio cycling last in the last month and he spoke about the one cycling project

And that sounded like a broader all stakeholders involved or at least he seemed to that what he seemed to want with ASO RCS the relevant stakeholders this article is saying it’s eight teams no ASO no RCS don’t know about Flanders classics and I very much doubt the UCI is

Involved in this so what does that mean yeah what would happen get this pull of funds 250 mil eight teams still don’t know if that’s worth it because that’s only like 30 mil a team and that’s prob the teams we’re talking about are inos and and Y and

Visma so um it’s not the the lower budget teams but let’s let’s keep working with it hypothetical they go over the UCI says you’re banned from world tour events because you join this Breakaway League step number one now brunal said in his pod on the move that he analyzed the European court of

Justice or whatever decision that said That’s anti-competitive which it is uh because that got struck down when another fed Sports Federation tried to do that or pull that sort of stuff anyway UC probably would do that and then the Riders now that they world tour team so their world tour team has now

Had its World Tour license cancelled because the UCI just said [ __ ] you the Riders can now terminate their contracts with the world tour team because a condition in the model contract which you can’t contract out of is that when a world tour team contracts with you if they lose their world tour

Status you can terminate your contract which no one did when isra lot got relegated so that just makes this really complicated because if you’re vinger guard Benji or let’s say you’re vingard you’re probably already getting paid pretty well you want to do the tour to France your team decides it wants to do

This new league and then it goes and does that you don’t want to do it the team’s getting the money or getting paid because it has J’s finger guard and then the UCI you can then cancel your contract and then sign with one of the teams that

Hasn’t gone to the Breakaway league so it’s really difficult it’s not like with golf with privateers yeah it’s it’s a very complex system and you’re right about the the European court of justice thing I’m pretty sure that was about the the Super League in football where it was

Initially yeah and and then it was decided play on and then I think the sports management company behind it said that it would be trying to relaunch the competition late 2022 as a consequence of that European court of justice decision to uh to basically a ban on people that compete in the other

League to compete in yours that was uncompetitive and so forth so but there’s just so many aspects to this and there’s been so many rumors like this in the past where from a basic perspective as someone that’s been following cycling for the last whatever 15 17 years something like that gradually increasing

Obviously and when I 10 I wasn’t a hardcore cycling fan yet but throughout that period you get used to this calendar that we have you get used to the system that we have at the moment in in our heads as somewhat traditional cycling fans because most cycling fans

Are like o we like how it’s working right now it’s going to be like o this is a change this is scary because what will this do to the setup we are currently having we’ve got the T FR jro lbl fles won all these ASO and are CS

Races how will this extra calendar next to that impact those races will ASO at any point even remotely be annoyed by that that Breakaway League existing outside of that which will basically be a a Racing League outside of those currently existing big races is how I

Perceive it and when I look at that I’m thinking why would a rider be interested in a top Rider be interested in riding that league if it comes at the cost of the other races so I they got to be getting paid a sh they got to get be getting paid 3 4X

Yeah that’s where the 20 240 million is going man yeah but that’s that doesn’t seem enough because they put they spent 100 Mil to acquire a minority stake in the United States professional fighters League which I don’t know what that is that ain’t the UFC by the way it’s some

That’s I don’t yeah I’m not I like MMA and boxing but pfl is not the biggest thing and they’re only got 2.5 2.7x more money for a cycling league with the best riders in the world for much much bigger sport MMA UFC let’s say is you know more

Profitable more Revenue but um pfl certainly doesn’t so I don’t see those numbers adding up is that not the thing where Jake Paul is like promoting bfl he’s trying to get I think he’s trying to get extra fighters in that or something relative to the

Other but yeah I agree to to your point but it’s like it’s like there’s still so many questions unanswered and also if you take a look at the Reuters article only eight teams were are are involved without ASO RCS documents expected to be signed in the next two months but then

On the other end it’s saying say there’s nothing conrete yet and talks are still Ono I’m like you can’t have both they AR going to solve these questions in two months I reckon so I don’t know man that’s I I read I see the the title of the article and

Then and then I read like the first two paragraphs I’m like holy [ __ ] is this happening next month like is this not and then you scroll down you’re like oh it’s it’s not progressed at all since the previous exclusive article sounds like CVC Partners just might not have

Bid cuz depends how you look at it like yeah whether the Saudi subsidiary won a competitive auction or was the only bidder I don’t know uh that’s unclear it’s it’s written like they won a competitive auction but if and you also compare so the end game

Would be if you think the end game’s the same as in golf where they acquire a stake in the PGA then the end end game is to get on a stake in ASO right and RCS uh yeah but I don’t have the feeling that ASO will ever be okay with having

It’s a it’s like a super family built company and it’s recently in public they and they’re doing good exactly yeah and in addition to that how if you look at the situation outside of the investment from piff the setup of this is starting to look a

Lot like the hammer series was as in races outside of the curent calendar held by a third party that is not in the sport yet necessarily where the teams have a say in yeah it just depends so like if the league can go side by side

With the UCI calendar and the UCI don’t and or can’t Blacklist you then the money kind of makes sense cuz you can essentially that’s just bonus prize money then and they can still do the tour and everything that’s the problem with the leak as well the fault behind

It is that you then have the best Riders at the best races no the the biggest Riders at the same races in that league is the view that comes out with not overlapping races but you’re destined to overlap with the existing calendar if it’s in addition to the already current

Existing races if ASO and RCS are not involved and all these tiny organizers the organizers that are organizing the Jito Del Veno the Italian Classics uh the 1. one Belgian Chad GPT races like all those other races will still be happening and I just don’t I would like to see something like

This in action for one year just to see what it’s like oh it give us a lot to talk about but what could happen is everyone just does the tour and the big big races yeah and then they spend the rest of the season earning much bigger prize money in a separate

Calendar also question with all these Middle Eastern races that exist like UI tour like like Char tour like Oman like um Saudi tour I don’t know what the relation is between those countries to the point that will the U tour will UAE be happy with the situation that a Saudi

Backed one cycling is starting or will they start is there a fight between Middle Eastern countries in sports as is there a fight between hosting a UA or hosting an Oman hosting a a Saudi tour to the point that we might then see other Middle Eastern countries with with

Money showing up and saying oh we want to host something like that as well I mean maybe they join I’m not I’m not sure um they were entitled to join this tender it seemed like and they didn’t so um it’s not no secret and this

Has been happening uh but yeah I just to to on ASO by the way there’s a sticky bottle article on this with their their revenues from previous years yeah and before the Netflix series was released according to this article their revenue jumped 177% to 550 million a year and

That’s before the Netflix series and after do we know that or we don’t know that yet okay um and we also don’t know the split that’s not just from the Tour by the way that’s from all their activities they organized duar rally uh Paris Marathon but but no but the

Cycling is is a at least half I would say of that so they are and they also said ASO spokesperson told Bloomberg the group is an independent family-owned company we intend to remain independent in order to develop our activities with a long-term Vision you also have to bear in mind that the

Reason and this is this goes to the tour of Britain so we’ll cover two bus one stone the tour of Britain this is not recent recent news to Britain uh organizer Sweet Spot has declared I think declared bankruptcy or is going into liquidation which is very unfortunate uh and the race is in

Jeopardy British cycling says they like it to continue inos want to try to help that happen y uh we’ll see if that does happen I have my doubts one of the biggest problems for them and the biggest inherent benefit the ASO and the tour is and and in Spain the cost of

Organizing is so much lower are you going to get all those police I don’t know at cost or free all those road closures all of that for that price or or lack of price if you’re suddenly co-owned or partially owned or majority controlled by the Saudi uh by P

ASO no no ASO so if ASO sell 51% to PF they won’t do that but I yeah but if they did then like surely that all of a sudden oh well here’s here’s the here’s the invoice for how much the police cost if you want to run your race around

France for 3 weeks is how I imagine it would go like it’s a quid pro quo at the moment because FR is a family family-owned French company but if we go back to the original problems of this entire thing that started this this Breakaway League idea like the the teams wanting a share

Of the revenue from the races like teams want the share from the revenue of the tutor fronts my question then is because I don’t exactly know the history has there ever been an attempt by teams to boycott the tour frons itself which I know as cycling fans we

Don’t want to see it but from a team’s perspective you can’t how how do you tell your spons so you’re going to boycott the yeah it’s [ __ ] there yeah they’ll be like all right we’ll we’ll terminate our contract with you today and good Lu paying your

Riders how is your team going to like that you’re doing this one cycling thing then that might impact your race schedule outside of that well that’s where the 250 million go back to that that’s where it doesn’t make sense cuz you would need to essentially bankr the fact or the

Guarantee the risk that they get H out of the tour existing sponsors bail and you now have to back stop and guarantee the existing contracts for all those Riders and it has to be more because they’re not doing it to break even so that’s where the 250 I don’t I don’t

Know I we obviously don’t know what’s going on so maybe it does speculation speculation but I’ve enjoyed discussing it and certainly as I’ve discussed it I’ve realized that in this team environment it is very very difficult the way cycing set up it is than uh than with golf so and it’s

Pretty toxic environment but then again that’s probably de in every sport I mean yeah that’s just Sports isn’t it yeah but yeah I already mentioned T Britain um but we’ll see if that happens this year it’s still on the UCI calendar it’s in a better spot I think this year

But as I said the cost of organizing those events it’s not apples and apples between different countries like there’s a reason T California doesn’t exist there’s a reason all the British races struggle and there’s a reason that the Australian races if they weren’t owned and organized by a literal state

Government which has a big budget and then organizes all the policing in South Australia there’s a reason why these races all are able to happen in uh the traditional cycling countries and one of those is not just audience interest it’s just just the cost of them happening it’s the

Places a local Spanish Town when the wter comes to say hey we want to sponsor we want to have our stage finish here they say what can we do for you we’ll we’ll we’ll repaint the roads redo the roads um put a couple extra Corners in

For a crazy finish we’ll let us roll out the red carpet and we’ll pay you in California it sounded like when you wanted to go through a town the mayor or whatever was like that’s going to cost X and you’re going to have to fill out a million pieces of

Paperwork um I might be simplifying it but that’s a general theme uh okay let’s draw a bow on that Benji uh the last thing we wanted to talk on was is this going to be the best onewe race of the year the do possibly the rout looks good I’ll be

Honest eight stages like always and there there’s a Time TR in there 34 km but obviously we’re looking at the mountain stages mainly if I’m a sprinter I’d probably abandon off to stage one because there’s like one opportunity far towards the end of the week and the

First stage is also a Sprint so if youan and need to be sent to the doof again then I’m looking at a situation where uh I’d abandon after day one but looking at the actual Mountain stages the last three are back-to-back Mountain stages and I’ll be honest the third last stage

And the last stage are fairly similar actually outside of the the last climb specifications and if we look specifically at the last three stages let’s go through it for a second 173 km it’s got an 11.1 km 8% climb on day five then day uh day six I mean day six seven

And eight Jesus I’m I’m losing it uh stage seven we’re looking at I reckon one of the hardest stages together with the last stage like three mount in the first 60% of the stage and a first time I think we go up the the final climb in history of potentially cycling somewhere

In600 is the climb 10 K at 99.3% that’s hard that’s very hard I’m looking forward to that one I will say that that stage specifically looks like it’s going to be a final final climb event as in the climbs that come early are too early to make like a launching

Pad and the last climb is too hard to able to risk that I reckon but the final stage does have the potential ability for an early launch as in there’s a climb before the final climb that comes with 50k to go which is the LF climb 12

Columbs at 7% and then the final climb is plot deer we’ve seen that in 2020 to the fr2 yeah but this is the other side oh there you go up the other side yeah uh I don’t even know I just know it’s the other side um but they don’t do the

Gravel they don’t do the yeah this is super hard finish like this this has got provisional sist Remco RIT vingard if this is what it is built to be and these guys go hammer and tongs in these last three stages or across the week and if Remco especially with that long TT you

Know I’m already mouthwatering waiting for this race uh before the tour so pray to God they all get there in good shape because that is going to be a cracker I you know samin reminds me of Solon and so the story lines of vingard now against rogl yeah like that is going

To be an interesting stage so yeah I I’m glad they did you say grov has to a B I mean he can’t he can’t go this race well he’s been going despite the parkour not being perfect for Sprints the last few years anyway so maybe he goes to like better

His climing before the Twitter FRS every year I think that was the the F behind it brutal race for sprinters sorry our last topic was actually the change for strata Bianca which I’m going to admit once again I say this every year Benji I don’t know what a monument is

Yeah correct I don’t I don’t know what that is a monument is a subjective term that was created I reckon somewhere in the 80s or ’90s for the hardest and somewhat older races the one day race are the most important ones throughout the season and we’ve got five of them

Obviously if you’re watching this podcast you probably know which which ones they are MSR Ru rvv lombardia and le le no sing on you Ben come on is is a very controversial topic whether it should be a monument or not the last few years people go back and

Forth on it all the time and I feel like Strate is trying to make a bit of an argument of trying to become a monument which is a difficult PR if you think about it they’re adding four gravel segments the race previously was around 200k or just under if I recall correctly

184 um and they’re now adding Sector 9 to 12 which is basically it’s not in the first half of the race usually the race opens up on Monte San Mari which is like a a long gravel section at 130 km into the race and now we’ve got four gravel segments

That are added after that which is basically LOL is now done twice and so forth so that’s what you’re looking at when it comes to the stage which means the race is now 24ish km so it’s it’s longer it’s harder it could open up earlier

Which I would like to see this I I’m curious what’s going to happen Str has already been very difficult in years where it didn’t have that and maybe now it’s even harder and I think quite a few people are going to be like oh it should be a monument but then the thing

Is if you create a monument or if you how do you decide something is that even an official term uh I don’t think so I don’t know if it’s even in the it is it is well it is by virtue of the points allocated to them since this year um yes but last

Year MSR was the same as Quebec or two years ago yeah but now they have like a million they get like a thousand points it’s like a grand to now they changed it um I’m just checking how much in it now does that CU like we’re talking about

All the 1925 winner of MSR I don’t know if the race existed already back then but he’s a monument winner but the term Monument didn’t exist yet yeah I know from what I can tell I think that was after World War or something that it that it started showing up the term but

Then I’m looking at St and I’m like is’ll bear suddenly a five Monument winner because if St becomes a monent yeah cuz he won if if it becomes a monument and he won it before mate this this is a winner then yeah UHA it’s difficult huh I think if you talk about interest

Or races I’m excited to watch each year yeah I want to watch strata Bianca more than I want to watch lombardia like that’s just a fact well not a fact well it’s a fact in my mind that I do you can’t change that fact I don’t like this

Change though I think chasing some sort of I don’t know the media deciding you’re now a monument or that eligibility why does it matter you get a [ __ ] good start list every year it’s a great race 80% of the time I would say the Pacha solo one wasn’t that great but

They’re still happy that pogy won the race it’s why are you changing what I think is a winning formula and the winning formula for this race is in 2021 you had a group of Egan Bernal Julian Al Philip Matthew Vanderpool wal vanard and Quinn Simmons and no

And yes so you now add more climbing to it 3,674 m with two additional fourstar sectors I worry that you then make it so that Canela shba van and v a special B but you know it makes it harder for those guys and makes it more of a hill a

Proper sort of moral to the climbers whereas I think it was perfectly balanced how the route already was oo i’ I would like to see it like this to be honest if we take a look at how do we perceive the other Classics let’s for example say that last year’s Str parkour

Is the tree to this rvv setup is how I view it as in it Tre is a shorter version of rvv kind of yeah which creates other race Dynamics oh yeah I see what you mean yeah but that’s what I mean though like then just could

The best win every time like Str has never had necessarily issues there’s been a few editions where I was like okay this was kind of meh I’ll be honest last year’s Edition was not the greatest edition of of St Bianca either and I think this no I thought I

Thought it was gripping really you didn’t think it was exciting seeing if the group would would catch Pitcock I thought it was exciting uh I think I think it was enjoyable but I enjoyed the vulner and wild vanard epic editions more yeah but it’s going to have a crack

St this you because there a tour having a gravel stage I I I enjoy seeing this change I don’t think it’s going to ruin the race I think it’s going to be relatively the same it’s just going to be longer and harder okay we’ll see why they they

It what is that term it’s going to divide the lions from the sheep or what is that term the wolves from the Sheep yeah the um men from the boys is what people used to say okay chaff chaff from the wheat uh yeah oil from water no that’s already divided it’s

Insoluble yeah I don’t know I mean listen it could be great I think you know a lot of these races as well is are only as good as a start list and the way the race plan pans are anyway so it uh yeah it doesn’t doesn’t necessarily

If you have a bad start list or one r or two dominant then doesn’t really matter what route you’ll have but it’s just interesting to see them doing that at changing it uh maybe they just wanted to make it more epic for the cycle tourists who do the grand

Fondo uh but cuz like what I don’t I don’t know what monument status would add to them like financially like yeah there’s more UCI points but what would it add I think there’s an image thing to it I think there’s a start list thing to it true so if there’s so many points

Available then vandol just does it every year in the necessarily for the points but mon of the race if it was a monument would W van do it this year I don’t know if he’s would that be a difference I don’t know if he’s doing it or not but

Um he’s not doing it I think I think I think he’s doing weekend do you think he’d do it I think he would I don’t know I think I think he would tell you it depends on whether the team sees it as no it’s a monument it’s a it’s a

Monument if Str becomes a monument will teams perceive that as the same level as the other monuments that were before for sure it’s such a difficult concept also I just remembered riders in their contracts have Monument Monument Bon they have tiered bonuses right yeah so

If you can win a monument you get a bigger bonus so it it does make a difference it does um maybe that’s what they’re going for but yeah uh let’s know what you think about the strata change it’s still not 250 K so maybe it’s not meeting the

Criteria just yet maybe they’ll keep adding 15ks every year till they get to 250 uh but that’s all from us I believe today we’ve wrapped up as much cycling news as I could uh scour across the interwebs and uh Twitter we hope you enjoyed the uh show and the cycling

Coming up this week you got one last thought Benji how’s your training going on my training well yeah last week not that good because I was twoing and flying and I did get a couple of runs in I ran I did ran R around the hotel in uh

Demos de is it demos or demos it’s all the same Luke’s going to be saying in the chat something uh he said den boss but it’s got It’s got the Bosch Bosch appliances Luke is spelled the same b os C is Bosch so why would it be den

Boss think about it um I went for a run it was pretty good like flat so that was sweet but I only had my Australian running gear so my nips and my ears got so cold uh but we you know I’m a brave

Boy you can go and see I put a vlog up of that actually today this afternoon honestly on my end I went into panic mode after you mentioned last year it was a stage a day of 190 kilms in there because yeah 198 no joke I had heard of

The flan challenge I didn’t know it was 410 km in 3 days one day 75 km then 19 then 140 145 with 59 Cobble burgs and Cobble segments or and burgs in it like I don’t even know if I can do the endurance of the entire 190k so I

Started my plan directly after the podcast last last week I immediately went into training mode I’ve trained eight hours and a half this week that’s my my heaviest training week of my entire life good January was my biggest month of my entire life on the bike and that’s

The lowest amount of hours I’ll have in the next 6 weeks because I have to gradually up the the hours every day it’s going to be a bit difficult the next week because I need to go to the Talia race but I’m going to be doing 10

To 15 hours a week now as preparation so hopefully that helps me able to finish I’ll be honest I think there’s going to be numerous occasions where you’ll have to wait on me but that’s the least of my worries I just want to finish oh it’s

Long for me as well that’s why I was tossing and throwing between the join plan like do I do the stamina plan just do the stamina plan and like cuz the classics plan it it will have me doing some Anor robic work but really I’m not

I’m not trying to rase it I’m trying to get through the 3 days so that’s what I was but the thing is I have so much availability that I think with a Classics plan I’ll be doing so much arobic endurance that it’s I think it’s probably the right

Thing to do anyway but that’s what I’m debating and for me it’s intriguing because it’s not just endurance for me it’s also I will need to be able to the to the you got to spark your two to seven minute wats to be able to get over these clowns

Because I’ll be running out of Gears mod likely on the on the heavy on the on the very steep climbs we’ll get you on on a on a with a good rear I think I’ll I’ll need a very good uh onetoone gearing or something something crazy or or one by

Or something well I haven’t mentally processed is if it’s bad weather I can’t do 190 K in the rain oh I would love bad weather I can’t do it I’ll suffer dude oh lit we’re doing it even if it [ __ ] snows man I would no extreme I will call Adam Hansen and get

Him to to explain to you that I do not ride in the snow or any light drizzles so no I’ll call him and he won’t answer because I’m always also me I’m also terrified not of the climbing and the length like I’ll just ride and see where

I finish I want to finish in my head but we’ll see what happens but I’m terrified of the descend Cobble descending is included right I’d say so and if it’s raining I mean I don’t know what yeah that’s not going to be that so we got things to

Think about Benji we we really got to get our act together and Mrs Ru returns tomorrow why we doing this with my uh because it’s GNA be funny and because it actually makes us get our ass into gear so that’s two reasons why we’re going to do it uh but

Yeah hope you uh all enjoyed this episode and we’ll uh we’ll see you uh with maybe something this week if not uh we’ll see you with the next edition of the week show next Monday till then ciao