Trouble At Trek & Giant + Is Doping Rife In Amateur Racing? – The Wild Ones Podcast Ep.41

Check out the audio versions of the podcast here: https://podfollow.com/the-wild-ones/view

We’re back with mechanic Nic! Here’s the breakdown:
00:00 Our Geraint Thomas masterplan is working…
01:18 Current pros’ conduct has Lance Armstrong confused
08:16 Is doping rife in amateur racing?
16:29 Trek & Giant admit struggles
26:39 Will Mark Cavendish even make it to the Tour?
37:15 Overrated/Underrated: Downtubes & top tubes with built-in storage
40:17 Overrated/Underrated: Studded tires
42:23 Overrated/Underrated: Bar tape choice
44:54 Jimmi’s slacking and bikepacking chaos (FUPTW)
46:54 Tips for getting friends and family into cycling
52:08 ‘I’m cycling Alpe D’Huez 6 times in a day… do I need more gears?’
58:48 Send us your training questions!

If you’d like us to send in a question, story, some good news, things you’d like us to discuss or anything else, email us at wildonespodcast@cademedia.co.uk
Thanks and see you next time.

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Hello and welcome to the world ones podcast a show where we chat about bike stuff this week I am joined by producer Emily and bike mechanic Nick how you doing good thanks yeah yeah good I actually have some exciting news yeah shoot so we actually might be one step

Closer to getting Gant Thomas on our podcast maybe so the back story of this is I have just set up the Cade media Instagram Channel @ CAD media official if anyone wants to go and follow us and I’ve been putting out some little clips from our podcast and one of those was

The episode that we did with Perry pera pera ab gwenth and one of those clips is him talking about when G Thomas won the Tour yep and I tagged Gant Thomas in it and who liked it Gant Thomas he knows we exist so that’s the

First step Y and then the second step is asking him slipping into his DMS asking him and then the third step he just has to say yes so what I’m saying is we’re a third of the way there one third yeah yeah do you think we can get him to Newcastle I

Mean would we have to go to like sandree to record it because I mean that would be a terrible shame but I’m sure that we could manage it right so should we get stuck into some news so Lance Armstrong has popped up in the news for saying he can’t

Understand why the current ERA of Pros are so friendly to each other so he shared a clip of himself on a podcast where he says and I’m going to say it’s it’s kind of worded very weirdly but this generation now these guys go hammer race each other some guy will lose the

Guy who wins is waiting at the Finish Line they’re fuing hugging it out I’m like what uh he added I’m impressed with this generation of cyclists in many ways they are more talented but they do not compete like we did hugs and high fives this would be totally foreign to me

You’re just waiting there so you can hug it all out after you just lost I’m not saying that I generation was the way to do it or that I was proud I think it’s kind of cool to see but it wasn’t like that for us never even cross my mind

Thoughts I’m embarrassed say this but I I kind of agree with him completely do you Gladiator style man you’re fighting it out that guy that’s just beating you is taking food off your kids’ table no I mean you’ve lost that’s not true that’s not true they’re salaried I’m yeah but

No they get bonuses for winning but the difference between first and second wouldn’t be much I would be happy to shake the guy’s hand and congratulate him cuz he’s beaten me the better man’s one on the day but I would be livered for at least half an hour afterwards and

Then obviously we can be friends again similar to like the rugby you see them fighting it out on the field and then afterwards like I miss the old days when there was battles Lance Armstrong versus R the whole kind of like but this is still happening it’s just when they’re

Finishing much like your analy of rugby they finish the race and they go all right the the battle is over but I’m not I’m not high-fiving the guy for beating me yeah that I’ll shake his hand and congratulate him I’m not high-fiving him I’m not going to be like celebrating his

Win for him you I mean it’s no it’s I I think it’s really good to see and I think uh pgat is at the Forefront of being nice rather than being an um and he’s very pleasant he posted pictures of him on the podium coming third like really happy with the podium

And that his mates had done better than him but he was still happy with the the result that he got and I think it’s really nice to see positivity and good role models in sport that doesn’t always have to be about being aggressive because once it finishes it’s

Finished I com I agree with on the podium all that completely I mean third is still it’s an excellent achievement me people that dream well all cyclists dream to just get in the top 20 which is a placing and some of these don’t you typically call third second loser yes

But that’s true as well but yeah but at the same time it’s the competitiveness of all uh during the race when it’s happening I’m just more for yeah I want to see more of a battle there is a battle they’re all getting paid money in the end to entertain us

And that’s how I want to be entertained I want like Ian of the South African springbox you know that’s what I want to see in the cycling you know like anger and then afterwards calm down be happy but that is what you described they’re battling really hard in the race

Finished they’re then going right well it’s done now I don’t need to be aggressive minutes later maybe yeah it done run by 5 minutes interestingly not to um be defending Lance Armstrong however because this is ultimately in a sense it’s talking about sportsmanship and I had a little look

Into this and there are scenarios in the early tours when Lance was battling Yan olich and and I think Yan has a crash and Lance basically slows down and waits for him and and vice versa Lance has an issue and Yan slows down and it’s the

Idea and and the talk about this and they kind of say you know you don’t want to win because someone else crashed and it’s basically seen as part of the definitely important that I mean I miss those days I miss all I mean I’m not saying they’re not doing it now they

Probably still are I just but I think also the other thing is it’s generational it’s what I grew up with and I mean I can talk about I’ve seen some horrible things I mean obviously you can go completely the other way I’ve seen a a lad that wanted stage in the T

I’m not going to name him but I’ve seen a guy spit on the winner because he came second oh my God is like obviously taking it to the extreme and I was saying that all I’m saying is I wouldn’t high five or would shake his hand congratulating but high five for me he’s

Too far there were there were a couple of uh interesting comments under the article one of which was prolific Doper thinks good sportsmanship is bad for the sport which I think is quite amusing uh someone else just replied with a gift from The Simpsons which shows a newspaper clipping of Grandpa and the

Headline old man yells at Cloud yeah I think that I mean Lance Armstrong whenever he says anything it’s going to come up in the news because um it’s Lance yeah it’s very polarized opinions and there was a lot of talk around the fact that people think it’s good that

There’s not as much toxicity I think he was kind of a poster child for not only the dorin but also the the AGG like aggression and toxicity that he he was known for being well yeah bullying people so much that they weren’t willing to like attack him and things like that

He used to just tell people to get back in the peltin rather than like go off the front because it didn’t suit what he had planned for the race I think but I think that’s a more important point because unfortunately at that time sport wise there was a thing came out a while

Ago saying if if his jerseys got taken off that if they banned everybody took their results off them for uh taking drugs I think the the the win of the T fins dropped down to like the 20th Place or something which is SM they all got

Caught doping in the end do you think there is an argument that because of the presence of social media and just like cameras on famous people constantly anyway that there’s this idea that you’re always being monitored and do you think that makes people perform in a nicer way yeah

100% it’s for the brand might it be performative is what I’m saying maybe inside they are still that kind of aggression or whatever or if that was normalized and that would still be happening but perhaps this sense of being being watched constantly mix I don’t I don’t think it is possible to be

As competitive as these people are without it being the Killer Instinct Mike Tyson fighter diod win or die mentality which Nick is referring to I don’t think it’s possible for them to not be like that but it is possible for them to not show that and actually be

Polite and nice and respectful always the aspect of editing as well yeah when Jimmy edits all our build videos where I’m happy and friendly and quiet you I mean and that’s definit not how the build video goes in my mind I edit these podcasts to get rid of the most controversial

Parts that’s why we fall for three hours to get an hour episode well speaking of dopers did you see what happened at an amateur race in Spain earlier this month so anti-doping tests has turned up and 130 Riders mysteriously abandoned the race yeah so this happened at race in

Alicante 182 Riders took to the start line and only 52 finished this was a huge drop drop off rate even compared to previous races one Anonymous Rider told the Spanish website cyclo 21 everyone knows who’s at it and who’s not wherever there are tests curiously the same

People do not finish the races in order to avoid the test of course without proof we cannot make accusations but it’s all very obvious so Francis has told us a story before when we’ve had a conversation about this that when he was at a Bel a Belgium ches

Race there was 150 people on the start race a drug car turned up probably not the kind of drug car that you would get in Newcastle and other areas that I grew up in and miraculously only 50 people ended up starting the race because 100 of them disappeared should there be more

Anti-doping measures at lower level of racing well it sounds like there’s a bit but how far down the chain does it go I I’m going to say yes because is back home we had quite a big Cycling Club and then all the clubs race against each

Other and you’d go on I was youngest so racing much well was much F well a lot faster than I’m now and we’d go to Club rides in the morning and be three or four clubs showing up together uh and the lad would ride hard and then you get

Guys beating the LZ that are racing new CI Elite races but they never entered any of the amateur races over there so there were people doping just to beat their mate on Club rid which is ridiculous but the problem for me is that I get the whole thing of

People say oh there’s no harm in it because nobody’s taking money off anybody else but I think the problem is not that the problem is the health issues yeah cuz I know loads of them aren’t riding bikes anymore I know a lot of people from back in the day that are

Now like they’re ill you I mean people with heart problems and things there’s stuff you don’t know cuz they’re just taking all these drugs and it’s dangerous so I think more for not for a sporting thing I don’t really care if you’ve won because of that in an amateur

Race or well obviously do but it’s that’s not my concern and the concerns more the health risks it also sets an expectation of what other people have to do to be competitive and that’s the other reason that it’s bad for example there could be juniors in lower level races

Which you know there’s usually well not usually there are occasionally people where you go that person might be doing something to make their performance better than it was historically and it encourages other people to also do things that they shouldn’t be doing to try and match other people’s level of

Progress um and then presumably that makes it very easy or very desirable to younger people to do it because I I think you see it happened a lot with like anabolic steroids and people that went to the gym is like historically you’d get all these bodybuilders that

Were massive in their like 20s or whatever and then before you know it you’ve got 14year olds doing steroids injecting steroids because they want to be massive because they think that that’s what they need to do thing about is that everybody keeps forgetting so I’m going to use Lance as an

Example back when he was doping and some of these professional cyclists and current ones if they’re doing it or not is people are forgetting these people have scientists they have doctors they’ve got um everybody in their Corner if they are doing it was testing them and putting them in labs and everything

Is dosed out and it’s weigh for weight and there’s a lot of they’re not just going to the local gym and buying steroids or EPO from some Pharmacy in turkey or somewhere it’s literally it’s a science and medically monitored and then you get some amateur blow just goes and buys whatever I mean

How do you even know what to take and Jack said into himself how much it is their stories of back in the day like in the I think it was the 70s or so where people were taking so much EPO that their blood was turning into like tomato

Sauce well that was so they’d have to get up in the middle of the night in the rain and then they would start talking about the story of pantani he used to have to get up every 3 hours through the night to ride on a bike to to tur to a

Bit of tubing to keep his blood flowing it’s dangerous and that that’s more the issue I’d say for the younger people to kind of also it seems crazy in amateur race I feel incredibly naive cuz I did not realize that that was going on at

Such a low level of I can I can I can see why it does though as someone that has historically tried to be competitive you get to a point where you start start the amount of gains you get become smaller and smaller and smaller you know

Like when I was racing fire K I’d get to a point where like if I got 2 seconds off of my time it would be like a result whereas the other option as is I could start taking EPO and then I’d probably take another minute off so I can see the

Draw to it you have to assume though that there must it must be fairly common in those circles cuz if you in that position if you went well I’m going to start taking AO how do you then get a hold like problem you’re not from some doctor it must be happening within those

Circles you must know a guy that knows a guy you know what I mean it must be talked about and and known or that’s just drugs though isn’t it yeah perhaps that’s all drugs explain drug culture to me JY yeah no I guess so but it all

Because I remember with because I used to know some people that did do anabolic steroids for going to the gym so for getting massive and it would come with you know do this but then also take this primrose oil or whatever it is because it’ll help

This you know like it comes with an off the Record dodgy list of things that you should or shouldn’t do to try and give you a better chance of not having weird side effects I imagine the same thing is going to be for the all the performance

Handing space but I don’t know it’s the reason it’s banned is because it isn’t safe so like don’t do it kids oh there’s loads of stuff that gives you performance enhancing that isn’t banned and I suppose because there’s no health risk was difficult to mon like caffeine

Caffeine does give you some kind of performance some people might say this test saying it doesn’t but my experien I ride much better when I’ve had some so caffeine the studies with caffeine are that it reduces your perceived effort so so if you do uh you ride fdp effort for an

Hour um with and without caffeine if you do the same amount of effort with with caffeine it will just feel less painful and therefore you can push more or push longer because it just doesn’t feel as hard uh so yeah there’s loads of stuff beat TR uh nitr tra so beetro juice and

Things like that there’s loads of things that are not bad for you I wonder how much how much anti- doring testing actually goes on at lower levels uh not enough at lower levels I think very little yeah well it’s obviously I’m it is obviously happening maybe they could

Take a record of who who Ducks out and see if it over a season how but there’s um so James has hat to me I don’t know were you in the shop and he was saying he did a race recently was the first time ever in his entire career where

He’s been where they they had testing right which is ridiculous cuz I know he’s conty level yeah but I mean Cony level races with the pro County land they just don’t get B salaries um and there is the odd occasion where the race against some of the World Tour teams I

Mean he just raced against Israel last week so essentially the fact that he’s never been nobody in the yeah it’s it’s a bit of a like it’s not happening enough M I would imagine it’s it costs money and they probably go oh we don’t care if it affects further down

The chain they’re not doing it for health really are they they’re just they’re just doing it because they need to do it at the top end whereas I think probably what we’re saying is we would like to see it further down the chain so that it stops people even considering it

In the first place because you just go well there’s I can’t take illegal substances because I’m going to get caught and therefore I’m definitely not going to do it so I should focus on the stuff that I can do like training now the latest on the crisis facing cycling

Retailers so giant the bike manufacturer their pre-tax profits have almost halved in the last year and its sales were down 16% again they are saying that they’re struggling with too much inventory and not enough demand meanwhile demand that’s such that’s putting it on the consumer it’s the consumer’s fault is

Basically what that says I don’t think it that’s what it says no just their supply out strips their demand it’s just I think it’s just terminology but over Supply is what they should use as a wording for not it’s the demand we have over supplied not it’s they have

Underd demanded meanwhile a leaked Memo from Tre suggests that it’s about to start downsizing its business significantly oh was this a leaked memo I saw something about this the other day so they’re planning to cut their spending by 10% and reduce product models by 40% by 2026 again they’re struggling with high

Stock levels and not enough demand President John Burke told company leaders the market is in chaos uh is it a sensible move what treker doing I would say absolutely yes uh it there’s there’s there’s more variety than there needs to be as someone which has historically worked in a manufacturing

Or production a product based business having lots of different products and models it’s just it’s just money it just costs more and more money just so that you can have them so this Trek thing came out at the taipe bike show I read an article about it um I can’t remember

What the magazine was called but it’s magazine those covering the show and that’s basically where the industry goes so you get loads of different bike shows where consumers go you get one where retailers go and then this one’s where the big factories and show I think I

Want to go next year oh definitely it’s yeah it’s be the highlight of my year going there but um they interviewed loads of uh people that own different manufacturers and or like Industries so like tracks the owner like everybody’s in charge of all these big companies and

One of them said which is probably the the truest thing I’ve ever heard any anybody say about the industry and he said the industry isn’t run by business people it’s run by enthusiasts and that goes down to Bike Shop level for me as well I think um and

He said we’ve got too many monkeys and not enough organ Grinders and like I say they just bring our stuff in too many levels and excuse these figures will be really weird as well because that would be for last year 2023 where and it would have been based off 2021 and 2022

Arguably being the two greatest years in the cycling industry um and people just kept on producing thinking this lockdown craziness was going to go on forever and ever and then fact in The Hangover this can happen afterwards um and that’s why they’re struggling but it’s it’s just a thing of people just

Think making more and more is better I know of a clothing company that is bringing out BB ties where they had black BB ties and blue BB ties but each one of them they had the logos printed in three different colors so now you’ve like you’ve got two

Bti could just work but one’s got silver logos one’s got white logos one’s got orange logos and you think to yourself you how many extra SKS and then you have to make for all these sizes and things and it’s you’re just creating more and more and more um and it just makes it

Much harder for everybody cuz if you have to stock in you have to keep all this extra stock to be able to cover the range um and it’s just a thing of kind of condense it down a little bit more yeah always be better I saw something from Sigma Sports founder

Sigma Sports is I think it’s just UK based isn’t it retailer they they probably do sell a bit internationally but they’re big sh they’re ultimately a shop in just outside of London that also have a a really good website yeah big online presence and they said someone

Asked Road CC asked them about what they thought about TX move and they said they think it’s a good time to reset and have a look at what they’re offering and they said that they have done the same thing in the last couple of years Giants and

All the companies making more and more stuff it’s just they bring out frame sets in three different carbon layups and most shops wouldn’t even know what the difference between the carbon layups is let’s let’s alone the um the consumer just kind of scale that done and then

All the different colors and things like that and then every year forcing a new colorway which they’ve not changed anything in the bike they’ve just made a new color and then they have to get rid of the old ones and all these things I mean it’s just a thing of I guess it’s

Something that works when the market is on the up in terms of people are buying you want to have as much possible choice for people to buy I guess but it then hits you really hard on the way down doesn’t it I’ve always been convinced that the yearly color changes

Is just to force bike shops to buy more stock to keep buying stock it isn’t even for the consumers it’s just to make bike shops have to constantly buy more I I know of two of the biggest brands in cycling where uh people have had the bikes and then had them repainted and

While sanding it down notice different colors on a brand new bike meaning like the old bike’s just been painted over wow it’s just shocking yeah mean bik’s heavier for a fact but it’s just a thing of yeah that’s the thing cuz it’s they try and force shops and saying you have

To take this many bikes if you want to continue being a shop and it just yeah it forces you to buy more stuff instead of innovating anything new so meanwhile retailers are seeing a knock on effect as wiggle launches a 80% off sale and I think they’re also saying that they are

Clearing out every single item that they have uh so British clothing brand Luso or Luso have said that they simply can’t compete in a recent blog post they said we have seen a slight drop in sales this quarter compared to last year but speaking to other brands it seems to be

Normal the wiggle closing down sale might have something to do with it but it would be unfair to hold them fully accountable it’s everything though isn’t it whether it’s wiggle aren’t the only one that I’ve got a sale on currently all of last year we basically saw

Massive sales from every part of the industry and if one person has if your competitor has a sale you’re forced to do a sale and we saw you know giant their profits were hared and sales only went down 16% so that says they had sales on Canyon the same thing happened

To them so so it’s kind of once one person goes the rest is is doomed to follow I guess but I I I think it’s like um toilets how many toilets do you buy in your lifetime I have never bought a toilet well you have cuz you bought a

House I guess so I’ve rented toilets and at some point bought a toilet a toilet might break and then you have to replace it or you might do it do up your bathroom whatever ultimately it’s infrequent isn’t it there’s a limited amount of how many toilets you’re going

To buy in your life where’s this going the same thing applies to everything in one capacity or another how many sets of cycling kit are you realistically going to own before you know eventually they’ll fall apart and you’ll want to buy new ones or you might just want them

Anyway if you’ve already got five sets of Kit the chances are you’re not going to need to buy another set of kit for 2 years 3 years four years 5 years perhaps even longer if it’s really good quality stuff so like everyone has bought all of

The the stuff they need over the last couple of years because they were really excited about riding bikes and they probably got a deal of the everything was on sale yeah and now and now no one people just don’t need as much I would go the slightly the other way the way

I’ve seen it is my analogy used was from you guys as well having ATA back in the day um and I’ve saw the club members people were buying like six seven 8 nine sets of kits Chris Hy was buying every single time you guys launched them and B

Stuff cuz he enjoyed it but when the cost of living crisis hits slightly the first thing you’re going to cut out is that cuz if you’ve got 15 20 I’ve probably got 200 sets of Kit um you don’t you don’t need more yeah so essentially you still want to ride your

Bike you still going to need ties you’re still going to need to service it and things like that but the one thing that you’ve got in Access that was the first thing that was always going to suffer um it will bounce back eventually so I

Think so I think a lot of big brands have G are going into survival mode uh there’s a handful of smaller brands or less prepared Brands I.E wiggle I think is probably an example of it um that are less fortunate and we’re probably going to see more band Brands go pop over the

Next couple of years my gut instinct is we are still 18 months from the turnaround and the the next cycling boom to come back around I think it will be interesting to see because it’s the Olympics year this year isn’t it it is yeah and 2012 was a really pivotal

Moment because the uh I was going to say the UK team GB did really well in the cycling and there was a massive uplift in cycling in this country and it’s kind of what brought about the Boom the boom so perhaps if we get good results this year there will be

I’m not sure it’ll be enough to correct what’s going on because everything economical in terms of cost of living living will still exist potentially but it will be interesting to see if it will change perception and get things moving or at least anchor them so that they’re

Not going further down I don’t think it’ll have any impact same yeah and the main reason is there isn’t there isn’t there’s no hype about the Olympics this year there’s no there’s no buzz so I think the 2028 Olympics which I believe is in La is going to be part of the next

Boom I think people will get really hyped up about it I think I think America will go wild for making it like huge and exciting and marketing the hell out of it and I think it will I think it I think there’ll be a big buzz around

The 2028 one but uh they would have to bring in new disciplines as well like uh bike jousting yes exactly that bike Javelin bike Javelin bike discus bike jastin tandems obviously you put bigger r on the back smaller r on the front the one on the back’s got the the

Lines front one’s got like a fairing shield things obviously so that they yeah next can we spare a thought for Mark Cavendish who’s having a rough start of the season so he dropped out of the UAE tour with illness missed the cut off time for the Toro adriatico stage

Five and his dnf at Milano Torino is now his third in a row he showed a promising start in February’s tour to col Colombia where he got got a stage win and a Podium but these latest results cast doubt over his bid to outdo ms’s stage

Win record at this year’s tour so the big question is do you think he’ll achieve his dream of a 35th stage win at this year’s tour to France I think everybody misses the point Cavendish is the greatest Sprinter of all time he’s done all of I mean he is there’s no

Debating it the results speak for themselves he doesn’t have to do what all the other cyclists do throughout the entire year have this massive build up their palmaris and wins and things he’s got he’s got all the wins all he needs is one more win he doesn’t need to be

Fit now it’s great to ride some stuff but the Twitter FR is a long way away for him to gain Fitness he could be I mean he could probably have surgery on something at the moment and still be fine for then so I think it’s he only

Needs one win one stage and he’s going to have several opportunities in the Twitter fins and every he’s probably the worst person in the world to bet against I mean look at him a few years ago when everybody said he stands no chance and he came out and he just absolutely

He embarrassed the other sprinters um he just needs one so I think I really I want him to get more than one I don’t want him to just have one more I want him to win like four stages in the Twitter FS I’d be happy with one but yeah I would never ever

Ever discount him he’s not old enough to be discounted yet either I mean back in the day people were winning I think was a chalini won at like 38 or 39 years old he was Will Champion right so I want him to do well I think that he is not going

To do well I don’t I I think that the current level of procycling is evolving I think it’s becoming significantly more marginal and I think the day of the old school pure Sprinter is done I think the pace is getting so high that pure sprinters and no no longer even able to

Get through the race so I think what we’ll see in this year’s Tor of France is a pace that is so high that by the time they get to the champ there’s going to be practically no pure sprinters even left in the race I don’t want him to win

The chance I want to win in one of the first Sprint stages he’s a he’s a gladiator he’s what we talked about earlier he’s a guy that will fight he will die before letting anybody I mean all these crashes and things is because there’s no Gap but he will go I mean

That’s no no uh don’t I was never a fan originally because it was I think when I was a kid I liked the wrong sprinters but he’s like a a Robbie mchan back in the day who didn’t have a Sprint train and just used to fight his

Way through and kind of wi stages when he shouldn’t have been winning like against the odds that’s Cavendish I mean I really hope yeah I really really really hope he gets it it’s a good point you made Jimmy about um the day of the pure Sprinter

Cuz I guess modern day version of that would be someone I guess like w vanart who is very good at a Sprint but is a much more he’s he he is way more than a sprinter yeah yeah him Matthew vaner they are unbelievable Riders I mean if

You think of as well as I mean they’re at the top of the sport for cyclocross and then they are at the top of the sport for cross country Mountains and bking the only discipline they’re not entering is downal and speaking of Matthew vandero he just signed a tenure

Deal with Canyon didn’t he yeah which takes him up to the age of about 39 so he’s going to pretty much spend his whole career on Canyons that’s a good move as well again I was talking to Francis about this this morning he was saying you know BR cyclists coming

Towards the end of their careers are struggling to work out where their income comes from so actually securing a long-term deal at the height of your career that’s potentially then going to see you through to your latter AE I mean the latter age of 39 whatever but he’s a

Dutch national yearo you’re not telling me he’s paying for any food ever again in that country and he doesn’t need the 10e sponsorship yeah fine but but you know you live to your means and what on once he’s you know right now he is number one or he’s right

Up there but in 10 years time that there’s going to be younger fitter people coming through how does that play out for teams so let’s say he team next year a different bike is he like I’m not riding your bikes I’m riding Canyon so El and quickstep have signed with Canyon

For another 5 years yeah so at the very least what we will see is him being a pro cyclist for the next five years so say I’ve heard some stuff where some Riders are I know certain contracts are different I know there are riders that are signed to bike brands not to the

Teams and they lend the Riders to the teams I don’t know that ins and outs of that but it’s it’s obviously very complicated because it depends on you know like um San was famous for his relationship was specialized yeah like he he he it was just that’s how it

Worked and I’m can originally was it yeah yeah but well he was he was the poster boy for specialized for a long time um and I think ultimately what we’re seeing with this Canyon deal is Sim a similar sort ofing he rides for that’s the one yeah uh CU But ultimately

He’s definitely with them for the next five years and then he’ll then either renew knowing that Canyon are part of that deal or he’ll retire and just do whatever else he wants to do or just do mountain bike what whatever it is I I actually think the interesting thing

With those two people is I think what’s happening is I feel like w vard is evolving into the next phase of his career because a few years ago he was absolutely everywhere he was so aggressive he was attacking everything I think he’s either grooming himself into

A GC space or he’s just going like proper proper domestic setup for the world uh for the grand Tours and I think you’ve got vle which is kind of becoming the character that van was historically which is this like really aggressive person but I I think that there’s still

There’s too much weight not too much but there’s a lot of weight Beyond ground tour Twitter FR is everything to everybody and it’s all good and well you can get like uh people have won the Tour and that’s great or one five tours whatever it is but vander’s won at

Everything I mean he’s been cycle cross world champion um he’s Road world champion uh if he wins M Viking then there Olympic champ there all like it’s it’s is a much more rounded cyclist the last time stuff like this happened was Eddie mk’s days when he was just winning

Every single bike race that he entered um it’s interesting it’s it’s good to watch I’m not happy about the canyon thing but OB that’s just me I think it is a great deal for him he is never going to make he’s never going to get a

Better deal than right now I would say or in the next couple of years so I think it’s a smart move securing a long that must cost them a fortune where where does pitcock fit into this pitcock I think is well from what I’ve heard is transitioning to will tours where he’ll

End up going cuz he mean he can climb I mean he can descend did you watch that uh Milan Sano the last like how close he was to the wheel this people I don’t think people understand the speeds in the corner you don’t know what the guy

In front of you he doing because he’s not worri about who’s behind him it was it was actually a really interesting diff the the style difference between vaner Paul and pidcock on that descent was really interesting I think pidcock’s I I don’t know enough but I think the

Only downside for him not a downside because there’s a plus in loads of aspects is how small he is on some of the flat stuff outright if I’m pretty sure if you look at outright power numbers something like a Matthew vanap Paul or van art different League different leagues so that’s where you

Have to ride much smarter yeah um which is it suggests that pigot could actually end up being a really good GC Rider yeah but you’ve got your vinger guards and your patas that are absolute babies and they’re not going anywhere for the next 15 years I I don’t want pitcock to

Become a GC it’ll be great at the same time as long as it doesn’t sacrifice the way he rides at the moment the aggressive style and things like that you don’t want them to get to a point where like Chris room’s days and that where everything was very measured you

Mean it’s good I know where they did it because they had great success at it but I just don’t want racing to be as measured where it’s like they know exactly what was I want pound meters to disappear radios to disappear all of that so that essentially you don’t know

How much power you’re putting through you just need to go a feel and if your feel is not good you could just explode no radios meaning your team could be off the front the um team leaders popped at the back but nobody can tell them they

Have to wait until they somebody next to the road saying like you need to slow down mate and like screaming at the TV because like slow down you’re like you’re leaving your own guy behind that kind of stuff I just think it’ll be in the end all of this is entertainment

That’s it it’s there to entertain us very true not anything else they are dancing monkeys and we need them to dance more you like entertain us that’s it it’s everybody misses the whole point of this this is what this is this podcast it’s to entertain people yeah it’s interesting because uh I think

We’ve talked about it before but boxing’s kind of seeing that now it’s why it’s why you know the YouTube is getting into the boxing stuff it’s almost it’s it’s resurging because they are ENT they what people want to watch also that is a lot of procycling analysis we we just did then

So in summary how many stages is Mark Cavendish going to win all the Sprint stages up until the big Hills I say zero I I haven’t seen the course not going win all I want him to win all if there are if there are stages that he can win

Before it gets hilly then I I would say he he’s in good contention currently I’m thinking he might not even start it that would be devastating for a cuz their whole team is basically been built around him but I mean it’s not like they had I was going to say it’s not like

They have anything else going for them which is a very brutal thing to say but ultimately it’s good marketing from them to to to do that time for another round of overrated or underrated I’m going to read out a list of things you’re going to tell me if you think they’re

Overrated or underrated so first up we have down tubes or top tubes with builtin storage suggested by Andrew who says they seem like a gimmick to me I’ve seen them on several newer endurance and gravel bikes and I don’t know how necessary they are or if they come with

Built-in risk of Integrity of the frame from a bike mechanic’s perspective I don’t think there’s any risk um for me personally they slightly overrated even though my favorite bike carbon bike at the moment’s got one um I do like the idea of being able to just

Put like a a rain coat or something in it I wouldn’t keep like my lunch and all my tools and stuff in CU it’s not easily accessible you still want a different bag and stuff but just for like I think if you’re just using for rain coat or to

To stack put away like a a gill or any kind of shake dry thing great it’s it’s extra storage um in terms of Integrity all these manufacturers are testing before and if something goes wrong with it then obviously that’s going to get covered by warranties no ways they’re

Going to get out of that I think they are overrated because I’ve never like I can just put a top tube bag on or a bar bag or a whatever bag or use my pocket just extra bags but it’s just I don’t need the extra space no yeah uh Rob’s

Got one like on his MOG and he do use but I think he’s using wrong cuz he puts everything so far hidden in there when he every time he needs to use he needs to stop and take his bottle off and all these things to get it out I would I

Would literally just use it to keep in uh in summer a Gil and in Winter a rainco that’s it I think it’s the kind of thing that cuz I imagine Rob is the kind of person that likes his bike neat yes and therefore he is willing to jam

And he also probably likes his pockets empty yes and therefore he’s willing to jam absolutely everything into that frame so that he can keep everything neat in his pockets empty whereas that isn’t the point of it it’s like I don’t I I think it’s overhead correct me if

I’m wrong but at the moment I’ve only seen them on an Envy MOG which is an incredibly expensive bike and AR argon 18 Chris Chris’s Aron and I’ve seen him on the new Canyon Grail it’s more it’s a more thing in mountain bikes loads of mountain bikes have them right okay um

Loads of mountain bikes have them at the moment it when it’s coming into radg gravel riding it’s on expensive bikes right it’s see I would say that’s a g I think the other place is probably some Triathlon TT bikes yes that’s always been a thing on ITP because it’s about

Arrow isn’t it I think for mountain bikes they are underrated just because in a mountain bike generally speaking subtle bags and bags is a bit more of a hustle if you’re using it I’m talking inro kind of Trail r and things like that where and you’ve got smaller

Triangles so bottles there’s not a lot of space the exact opposite to what with road bikes and gravel bikes so there yes to keep your multi-tool and a couple of things you might need in the frame is probably the most logical place to keep things uh TC bikes as well because

Everybody wants Mega Arrow also from Andrew we have studded tires so he says I live in Vermont and we get a bunch of snow and ice although less So lately thanks to global warming I know a lot of commuters bikes have them but I feel like gravel tires do a good job maybe

They come from a different time when you couldn’t put wider tires on rim break bikes do they still have a place I have always wanted to use studded tires I bought them this year they’re really hard to get hold of in this country OB expensive as well underrated uh if

You’ve got ice I know we don’t have snow over year but we do have ice icy roads and things I don’t mind crashing I crash almost every gravel ride but that’s my own fault where I’m just sick and tired for a couple of weeks in January every

Year on the coast to coast of some of the trails hitting a patch of ice and then just going down without even thinking about it yeah and you always crash hard Nigel broke his hip uh in the tan Mo couple of years ago on the ice

And then he lay there for 4 hours waiting for an ambulance I’m surprised he didn’t die so for me studded tires are specifically for ice whereas quite often when it’s snowy or at least in this country you can actually ride on snow and not need a studded whereas we

Get a lot of 2° to minus 4 where it’s constantly bouncing in and out of Freez and Thor Freez and Thor so we get a lot of melted snow or ice which then becomes water and you get these horrible sheets of ice so studded tires to me the Reon

I’ve always wanted them because we get that a lot in this country if you don’t get into ice a lot then you don’t need snow snow studded tires and if you’ve got lots of snow then probably you don’t need them as well because and if you’re

Going to ride on the road loads cuz on the road generally speaking the ice melts from the cars the heat but and the noisy the tires but yeah just knowing gravel wise you’re not going to worry about the ice at all it’s for me it’s worth it they’re very expensive they’re

Incredibly heavy so I I think they are underrated but only because I haven’t used them yet I got some for your how for next year send them over uh next up we have a suggestion from yuris who says uh oh it’s it’s the subject on is B tape

Choice so there are hundreds of different ones for sale yet we ride on the rubber hoods 99% of the time if feel grip thickness and vibration damping dampening are so important why hasn’t anyone come up with a different type of aftermarket hood yet I think it’s a very good point or I

I actually do think it’s a very good point because I am one of those people which says I don’t use the drops pretty much ever I spend like he says 99% on the hoods and occasionally I’ll put my hands on the top where it’s taped generally speaking your hands on the

Hoods but the like ball of not I don’t know what you call it but like the bottom of your palm heel the heel of your palm is on handlebar tape and that’s where most pressure goes through next thing is that I think as big as some of these handlebar tape

Manufacturers are none of them actually well I’m going to say none very few of them make their own handlebar tape they all just buy there generic companies that make handlebar tape and everybody just rebrands them like our Triple B stuff we use is exactly the same stuff

Fabric uses um and a few other brands um but the company’s making hoods bizarrely it’s a big thing if you see shiman releases new group set or cug or Shram they always go on about the development they’ve put into their hoods so they more think about the important thing

There is grip and ergonomics ergonomics and sweats and things like that so it is good um it is a good point but at the same time it if you’ve got massive problems with your hand no amount of tape’s really going to work because you’ll go too thick get yourself

Shameless plug of a red shift suspension stem that’s made a massive difference for me ultimately way more than tape my opinion on this and I think you’re probably going to agree as well is buy cheap bar tape it’s got a bit of grip on

It and a bit of a bit of firmness some of the expensive tape is completely waste of money from a bike mechanics perspective if you buy something that doesn’t have a sticky backing where it’s more of a gel backing that’s better for me cuz you get tape in that’s been glued

To your handlebar takes me longer to take the tape off than it does to wrap the bars again um and then whatever wraps easily um yeah cork tape is O is massively underrated I think just it’s nice so what we say in Bart tape Choice overrated or underrated uh overrated

There’s way too much of it just you just need like five quid piece of cork tape or whatever don’t you get five quid but 10 quid yeah next up we have fluff up of the week There is a lot for this one isn’t there so the first one is from me uh which I’m going to keep very brief I didn’t think I had anything to do yesterday so I decided to work on the house instead and then when I got to the end of the day I

Realized I missed four meetings which I will have to reschedule so if you are one of those four people that I missed the conversation with I do sincerely apologize and I will reschedule you short media is good no sponsor has left slacking off while the bosses away and then there’s also some

Special mentions for Francis Cade on his trip in Malaysia we’ve got Lawrence who forgot the skewer for his tail fin so they had to botch something together uh Francis fell down a hole and cut his knee and also I noticed this morning that he uploaded the most recent video

At 500 a.m. when typically we would upload it at 1: in the afternoon I can’t believe them lads being telf and product testers SL ambassadors ambassadors all of this then realize that you can fit a tail fin without the skewer it can will go onto normal Pion rack mounts that every

Single one of them comes with adapters included with your tail phone when you buy a box it comes in it so you don’t have to the skewer is nice but you don’t need to use a skewer you can’t actually just mount it directly on it could even

Have gone beyond where take the ends of the tail fin and then screws would fit through that and just screw into your normal pan m so it’s not something they need a special adapter from even though it comes with the tailone you could just go any bike shops can have the bolts and

Most bikes actually have the bolts on the frame well I feel like you should be telling them that if he just rang me it would have been over the phone yeah no worries mate take these bolts out of your wherever on your bike and then that’s a fixed so zero sympathy I mean

That’s shocking if I was tailan I would councel their sponsorship and yeah let’s head over to our emails because it’s time for listeners take over we need more Jingles don’t we we definitely need to make some more Jingles stop saying it and just do it so from kit in Hong Kong love the

Podcast and all the other content how do you convince or lure uh I always find find that word really hard to say cuz people say it is L I would say Lu but yeah but I said Tu and whereas I go Le uh anyway how would you convince or lure

Noncycling friends and family to get into cycling bike and all the accessories can be expensive barriers to entry those rental City bikes are all well and good but they are a bit slow and boring maybe a secondhand road bike is a place to start um it’s a good

Question I think I have some experience in this space because I convinced you to start riding bikes yes you did yeah um how did you do it the first thing that I did was I bought you a really cheap bike that was something in line with what you

Would expect so it was a it was a town bike it was upright it was foldy it had a basket on the front it was all the stuff that you would look like at the look at in a bike at the time and go like oh that looks like fun have a

Little pole on that which you did and you thought it was enjoyable another thing that you did with that bike is you took all of the unnecessary parts off it because that that was the next bit yeah all right sorry gu then when you were like actually this is quite fun but this

Bike’s a bit of a brute we then stripped loads of the metal off it because it was very heavy and then you were like actually this is a little bit more enjoyable and then I and then the next phase was to convince you to get a proper bike which is ultimately

Something that could be uh drop bar handlebar bike in the future so then I got you I funded you paid I think about 500 quid and then I put an extra £1,500 in without you knowing to get you a customade steel uh bike with again wraparound bars

And I granted it was way over the top we didn’t need to do this but the whole point of this was that it could be converted to drop bar if you decided that you liked it even more which I was pretty confident that you would so you

Then had this bike which very quickly you then again maxed out yeah and then we convert it to a drop bar bike and then you like right yeah this is the one we also did some cycling at the Lee Valley Olympic track which is a one mile

Um Rod circuit so it’s free from cars it’s proper smooth tarmac and that was the first time I tried a drop off and it was it allowed me to do it away from cars and on a very smooth surface so really get to grips with that kind of

Mechanism um I don’t think that you’re saying the way to do it is spend two grand on a custom steel bike but the point is I mean number one you have to know whether people are actually interested in it but I think it’s yeah you’re right do it in stages drop bar is

A really hard thing to get used to first of all I would say if I if we had gone straight to drop bar you would have been like the is Twitchy and uncomfortable and horrible I have no interest in this yeah I agree and I I knew how to ride a

Bike I had not done it for a long long time but yeah it’s it’s a completely different Beast isn’t it we also did a lot of uh Road etiquette education yeah if that’s an an appropriate way ultimately I taught you how to ride on the roads in London and not get killed

Safety is a massive issue and it’s one of the there there’s studies into it that show that safety is one of the main barriers to entry of taking up cycling as well as free time but um breaking down those barriers to safety being able to if youve got access to off-road paths

That you can practice on or you know safe spaces to do that and learning about etiquette that can be one of a really really good way to break down those barriers and make it seem fun rather than terrifying I I would say 100% do not buy a mid-range bike at all

Don’t be spending £1,000 on a bike no because the problem is that two things are going to happen either they’re going to not get into it and you’ve wasted a lot of money or they’re going to get into it properly you still wasted a lot of money because they’re going to want a

Nicer bike especially if you are coming from a cycling background and riding very seriously you’ve got all this kit and all these things and then essentially start doing things together I would suggest you buy really cheap decent quality hardtail mountain bike hardtail Mountain Bikes tend to be the

Cheapest bikes to buy because they’re made in mass and that’s something that if you were to get into a properly ride loads and get yourself a road bike or a gravel bike or whatever bike you want it’s not a wasted bike it’s something you can still use around the town or

Like as your commuting bike or going to the shops guess the other thing workout is how much time are you willing to dedicate to helping ease that person into the transition because you know if you’re expecting to do two sessions and then wanting to go off and do you know a

Faster ride or a longer ride than they might not be care capable of doing that and there’s nothing worse than feeling like you’re slowing someone up or getting dropped or whatever so I I guess be willing yourself to commit the time as well to making it enjoyable so from

Sam at the start of June I’m going to be participating in an event called the Alp dues where I’ll attempt to ride up Alp Duz six times in one day with thousands of others for cancer research my question is about gear ratios I have a canondale sinapse with all the stock

Parts I believe it’s a 5034 4 front chain ring and 1134 rear set meaning I already have a pretty easy Gear with a 1:1 gear ratio I’ve used this bike to climb Mount Von 2 but my Cadence was significantly lower than usual for large sections of the climb so I’m worried

That especially when I’m tired after four or five as sense that I’ll really be grinding my way up according to Shimano I can’t fit a bigger cassette on my current deria can I go outside of the recommended Shimano range without causing any damage and if so is it worth

Buying a bigger cassette also side note would massively appreciate it if you could shout out my donation link people can sponsor me individually or the event is a whole and all money donated goes to cancer research yeah I’ll put a link in the description for that link in the

Description for Sam simple answer no I I get this to which bit to going outside the limits of what the Mac says right there’s for rooms on the internet that says you bigger I’ve done it loads of times it works fine no it it’s a warranty breach but I’ve done it loads

Of times and it works you can even get a wolf tooth link uh extender so wolf tooth make a part which which literally enable it to officially work I think as well okay I’m just saying to you from a bike shop perspective I had a customer that comes and argues with me about

Everything they shop so he came in the other day and he was saying that Shimano says grx cassettes can only go up to 42 teeth on the um on the 11 speed ones but he has read on loads of forums that you can put the 46 tooth one on and then I

Said yes but sh says no so we recommend you don’t do it yeah argued and then and and it’s like why are you in the shop he’s like because it doesn’t work like but I told you it’s not going to work Shan told you it’s not going to work yes

But the Forum says it will work like but it it doesn’t work it’s one of those just generally speaking I would say no uh don’t do that if it’s a big Advent you can do that see if you’ve got a friend who’s got a gravel red and

A cassette and borrow one swap it out because most of the 11 speed shanos if I’m assuming this Shimano looking at this it’s got um it’s interchangeable uh pull ratios on 11 speed so borrow ax re Mech off a friend and then put an 1142 cassette on and you’re going to have a

Massive ratio I don’t know if that’ll work with your front Mac sorry chain set but yeah it’s generally no I wouldn’t bdge it I would yeah I I I think going back to the source of his question I would definitely say if there is the option to

Have more gear range take it yes like just take it there’s NE there is not going to be a scenario on that event or climbing any Hill where you go like oh I’m I’m so disappointed that I can make this easier for myself I also think

If that’s in your mind now it’s really going to be in your mind when things get hard on the fourth climb whether that is the issue or not I don’t know for me that would be a sort of little brain worm that buried in that was oh there’s

A bizarre thing with Road cycling so technically speaking a one:1 ratio in terms of efficiency if you get to one to one and you feel you need more gears it’ll be more effic even if you ride at one to one it’s more efficient if you had no luggage on so this is

Talking in a sense of no Luggage in your bike and it’s on the road it’s actually more efficient to climb off your bike and walk you’ll use less energy Main same speed that’s not the point what I’m saying is on a general climb I say to people if it’s just for everyday riding

Then I wouldn’t because I would just get off and walk um because you’ll use less energy so you’ll be less tired but saying this where it’s six times up the same one you have to start thinking of energy for late in the day and like long I mean you’re going to continuously be

Climbing um I would get easier ratio but for going to Montan 2 oh sorry Al and doing all of this it’s going to be hotels it’s going to be trips and stuff I would see if you can borrow different red raia and possibly chain set to make it easier or buy one

Yeah if if money isn’t an option which doesn’t really apply to anyone apart from 0.0 not one% of people then I would say change change something so that you’ve got more gear ratio so I I was riding my gravel bike on road yesterday and I’ve got a 42 chain ring with a 52

Biggest biggest ring on the cassette on my howler for so it’s a 42 front chain ring with a 10 52 rear cassette and I was using that 52 to climb up some of the climbs I was going up yesterday and I was like I love that I have this

Outrageous gear ratio because it allows me just to spin and enjoy it so I definitely think you should get some more stuff you shouldn’t technically ever go outside of manufacturer’s warranty I have done it myself uh or manufacturers recommendations I have done it myself and made stuff work it

Always is a botch and it doesn’t work amazingly you’ll probably need to get a new chain because it’ll be too short wolf tooth do a thing which enable you to get a couple of extra something or other in so have a look at that option uh alternatively look at uh a different

Rear Mach or different chain Rings or something along those lines if you are unsure speak to a local bike shop that has some good recommendations from your mates a new cassette with bigger ratio will be just as expensive as buying a mountain bike chain set a cheaper one

And then get a Mike chain said with like a 28 or 32th ring cuz I’m assuming you’re only going to be worried about running uphill not downhill yeah so then you can get more than one to one race if you do it that way well if he goes it

He’s definitely going to need a chain as well yes so where if you just go for a really small really small I’m talking about 28 Toth chain ring onto uh a mountain b c set or some people do aftermarket ones it might fit to his chain set yeah you can still use your

Current cassette you can use your current chain you’re just going to have to shorten it and then buy a new chain afterwards but yeah that’s going to give you because I assume for this kind of event all your warriors riding uphill downhill you’re not going to be up has got 21

Switchbacks I think you’re not hammering it down there you’re just going to free wheel all the way down turn around right up that that’s going to be the cheapest option I think good luck for your event sounds brutal thank you to those that sent in questions for Nick we had quite

A few extras so we’re going to release some more of those in a future episode next week’s guest is our pal James he’s an elite cyclist a professional cycling coach and has a special interest in sports psychology so please send him your questions to Wild Ones podcast at

Cad media. co.uk and we will chat through them in next week’s show before we go I just want to say a massive thank you thanks for listening and thanks for leaving us a five star review it really helps us grow the podcast if you’re listening to the audio version and

Haven’t yet please go leave us a review if you’re watching on YouTube please like And subscribe thank you for your continued support we appreciate it very much thank you goodbye see you on the next one cheers Nick byebye everybody bye