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The Steep Stuff Podcast
UTMB OCC & Some ETC Race Preview with Teddy Tonelli
Get ready for an exhilarating UTMB OCC race preview that blends expert analysis with laugh-out-loud banter! James Lariello teams up with Teddy Tonelli from the Chasing Trail podcast to break down this iconic 55K mountain race that features over 11,000 feet of climbing through some of the most spectacular terrain in the Alps.
The duo dives deep into what makes OCC special - from its technical course that prohibits switchback cutting to the mandatory gear requirements that add an extra layer of challenge. With forecasts showing potential rain and temperatures ranging from 48-68°F, the stage is set for an unpredictable battle on the trails.
At the heart of this preview is the much-anticipated showdown between Jim Walmsley and Adam Peterman, two American ultra-running stars rarely seen competing in the same race. Has Walmsley's move to France (and his newly acquired French accent, as the hosts joke) given him the European edge? Can Peterman, coming back from injuries, reclaim his position among the elite? The hosts also highlight other Americans to watch including Michelino Sanseri and rising star Cade Michael.
On the women's side, defending champion and course record holder Mao Yao returns to face stiff competition from Switzerland's Judith Weider and a strong American contingent led by Hannah Allgood and Sophia Lockley. Canadian Jasmine Lather, fresh off setting records on the Grand Teton, brings her exceptional climbing ability into the mix.
Between the analysis, Teddy and James deliver hilarious commentary on everything from European shower habits to the dangers of aggressive Alpine cows, making this preview as entertaining as it is informative. Their chemistry shines through as they debate their podium picks and contemplate the future of betting in trail running.
Whether you're planning to follow the live coverage or just want to understand what makes OCC one of the most competitive races of the UTMB weekend, this episode offers the perfect blend of insight, predictions, and trail running culture. Tune in before Thursday's race to get fully primed for what promises to be an epic mountain running showdown!
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What's going on everyone? Welcome back to the Steep Stuff Podcast. I'm your host, james Lariello, and I'm so excited to bring you guys a UTMB OCC race preview episode today. We also touched a little bit on UTMB ETC as well, which is also a really cool race, but mostly centered around UTMB OCC. I am joined by co-host Mr Teddy Tonelli, who is the host of Chasing Trail, which is a trail running satire based podcast which is really entertaining.
Speaker 1:By the way, if you guys are looking for jokes, teddy's got you covered. I think you guys are going to get a lot of value out of this one. You got the serious me and the not so serious Teddy having some fun and throwing some banter around. We hopefully bring some good value for your UTMB OCC picks as well as just bring you a good preview episode for this race. Guys, there are a lot of jokes in this one and some of them are at the athlete's expense. Remember, first and foremost, they're just jokes, so we're just playing around. This is a fun one. This is not the normal type of race preview episode I do. So this is a? Uh, just just having some fun and having a good one, so hope you guys have a lot of laughs and enjoy this episode without further ado. Utmb OCC race preview episode with co-host Teddy Tonelli from Chasing Trail trail. Thank you, ladies and gentlemen. We are live, teddy Toenails. Welcome back to the Steep Stuff Podcast. What's up, buddy?
Speaker 2:Hey James, everything's great over here in California. Excited to be on excited to do this preview for OCC, but I'm doing good. How are you?
Speaker 1:I'm doing great man Dude, you look very California today. You've got little cut-offs, very orange. I'm digging great man Dude, you look very California today. You're like, got a little cutoffs, very orange.
Speaker 2:I'm digging it, man. It's funny. You should say that I was actually trying to go for a more Euro vibe. You know what I mean. I got my Italian flag hat on here. I got my skimpy shorts. I got this little singlet here, represented by the most French company that you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you look good man, you look good man, you look good. I gotta say that's, uh, that's very euro of you, and we'll be saying that a lot throughout this episode, I think I.
Speaker 2:I like the glasses, by the way. Those is nice.
Speaker 1:I see, I was channeling 80s, 80s, americana, you know like, okay, with the beard, the mustache and the and the glasses, I, you know, I want, I want to strike fear in the hearts of the Euros. I want them to be ready for what's coming, because there's going to be a whole can of whoop-ass between OCC, ccc and ETC. Oh baby, it's going down 100%.
Speaker 2:I think the Americans. This is our year, this is absolutely our year.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I can't say much about UTMB because I didn't do too much of a dive into it, but just from some of the look at that, I did yeah for OCC. I'm pretty excited, man. I think we've got an amazing contingent of men and women going over there to compete and I'm excited to preview this man. This is our second race preview. I'm pumped to do this OCC. Do you know what it stands for? You know what?
Speaker 2:That's so funny. You should say that it's the first thing on my list here and I say I got a big issue with utmb here. What's up with all the freaking letters here? Oh, ccccc, utmb. Can we get some freaking numbers? Okay, how long is the race that we're previewing?
Speaker 1:by the way, this is a 55k that equates to 34 miles, so it's pretty, pretty far, pretty far for someone like me. Pretty that's.
Speaker 2:That's kind of short for someone like you yeah.
Speaker 1:So it's pretty far, pretty far for someone like me. That's kind of short for someone like you, yeah no, it's okay.
Speaker 2:You know, hey, look, sometimes we like you know it's funny too, james, because you know I'm looking at this race I was doing a little research here and some history is that they brought OCC on and a kind of like entry level to UTMB. Right, they says, like you know, all these other these short trail people that can't do hundreds because they got short legs or whatever, you know, we're going to throw this race in the mix. You know, personally, part of me thinks that it's just they want to make more money. But the other part of me says, well, hey, they started this race and now it has become one of the most competitive races on the weekend.
Speaker 1:Oh, dude, it's crazy man. So this race is going to take place this upcoming Thursday. So a little bit well, a little bit less than a week from when we're recording this. So Thursday, August 28th, 815 am. So a nice gentle start time, Not a weird time. Usually the Europeans do these golden trail races and stuff like that. They start them at two in the afternoon, one in the afternoon, three in the afternoon. Dude, even the VK starts at like five in the evening, Like who starts races like that? So it's exciting that it's 8.15 start, Dude, the course is amazing. Like I have to be honest with you, and maybe you know, maybe you got some insider information there from that Michelino Senseri guy, but like I have to say, this is probably the most beautiful course of the UTMB courses in my opinion.
Speaker 2:You know I would agree. I think it is gorgeous. I mean really. You know, at the end of the day, they do a great job with the live stream and all the you know the Instagram reels and they show in, you know, showing the scenery and everything. Teddy's never been out to Chaminix, but I really want to get out there one of these days. It looks so beautiful. Yeah, he's out there right now. Michelino's out there right now. He's preparing, he's going and getting himself some pastries and petting some European dogs and things like that. It's beautiful.
Speaker 1:That's amazing. That's amazing. Let's talk a little bit about this course. So, dude, 11,236 feet of climbing based off my, my conversion there, that's a lot of vertical in a 50k. What do you think about that?
Speaker 2:well, well, you know, in on top of that, okay, john albin has the record for this race. I believe he kind of owns this race for the men. I believe he's won it like three times. And what's amazing to me is, with all that vert over 55K he ran that race at an average pace of eight minutes per mile. That is blazing fast, blazing fast for that much vert and like that 11,000, that's like a sky race right there almost, isn't it?
Speaker 1:It's pretty much almost. I kind of technically maybe I don't know, I don't know the rules I would say this is the most mountainous course, I would say, of the courses between CCC, utmb, let's just say between OCC, ccc and UTMB. This is the most mountainous race, if you will, just because of the profile. Now I will correct you on one thing. So, okay, this course has changed numerous times.
Speaker 1:Eli hemming is technically the course record holder for this course, which I believe will be the course that's going to be ran this year. So our boy eli ran last year 5, 11, 48 and then. So, since we're getting into course records, dude, there's, there's a lot of like history and some crazy shit behind this race. Do you, do you know the guy, the Stian Ungerman dude? No, I'm not sure about this Ungerman, this Ungerman man Dude. He ran it in 2023, won the race in 4.42.40. So about 20, 25 minutes faster than our boy Eli, and he was that. So what happened was because of a doping violation, he is no longer. That is no longer recognized. So our boy, francesco poopy. He won in 2023 and got second place last year. So francesco poopy is technically the 2023 champion wow, yeah, okay, that, that that is amazing.
Speaker 2:And well, I will say, eli, good job. You know, hey, john albin, guess what america beats you guys again.
Speaker 1:You guys cannot win yeah, yeah, no, it's uh dude, there's a lot of. So one thing I've found about the utmb races and this is the same thing for the big course, a little bit less so in ccc, although the course has changed for ccc is that they're constantly changing courses, like they're constantly putting, like taking sections out, putting sections in, and a lot of times it's all around that c, that occ course, um, so the way the modern course runs is you'll start out at a place called and I'm going to butcher the way you pronounce this is or size, or or cyrus, or cyrus. Oh okay, I was gonna ask you.
Speaker 2:Yeah, that's what that's what the o stands for. I'm going to butcher the way you pronounce this. It's Osiris. Oh, okay, I was going to ask you.
Speaker 1:That's what the O stands for Osiris, and then so you run to Champs-Élysées, that's the first big aid station, trient, then Col de Bonhomme, or Col de Bonhomme, excuse me La Frigère. La Frigère is usually that section. You'll see, it's very iconic, you'll see there's it's like ski slopes, almost like a, like a ski, like steep ski roads, and they are sorry that's called a man and then you'll kind of drop down into Chamonix after, if I remember correctly so it is it is four gigantic, just ass whooping climbs. Very cool, very cool race.
Speaker 2:No, very, very awesome. Yeah, you're going through Osiris, Champex and Chaminix, which is the OCC part of it. I think I'm not good with the names, the French with the X's and things like that. I don't understand it, so I just go by it with the American version Osiris, champex and Chaminix, in case you're going over there, sound like a real local.
Speaker 1:I think you got it. I think you got the pronunciation down.
Speaker 2:I think that that that dialect will strike hearts into the uh, into many men. Yeah, I think the french would be scared with that dialogue. You know what they should be scared? We're coming, okay, we're coming. French people. Um, you know, it's funny, I actually only have one french person on my podium pick for the men, so stay tuned. Oh, wow, wow, I, wow, wow, I like that, Teddy, how do you?
Speaker 1:how do you get into this race? You collect a bunch of stones, Is that? Do you know how you get in?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I don't do the whole UTMB thing. I'm going to be honest with you, james, I don't understand. I like rocks. Okay, the thing is I do like rocks but, like you know, you're going to make me collect the rocks and then I got to give them back to you digitally. I don't do the digital rock thing, teddy does real rocks. But yeah, basically what happens is you've got to go run other UTMB races. Okay, you collect your stones Depending on the type of race, depends on the type of stones that you get and then you get to enter those stones and then some Wizard of Oz type person decides whether or not you get to have the privilege to come race this race. But it seems as though, you know, it's grown so much recently. It started with like 600 people as the first entrance and now it's up to like 2,000 stinky people at the start line. So you know, but yeah, I mean, maybe you could shed some light on the stone situation. I'm really not sure.
Speaker 1:I know that you've got to collect them and then give them back it's kind of like uh, almost like like the pokemon thing, collect them all, you know like. Yeah, it's that's kind of what it reminds me. But in order to kind of jump that system, yeah, so in order to get in, in order to have gotten in for 2025, you had to have run a utmb qualifier in 2024. If you want to get an auto bid at a normal, any normal UTMB race, okay, or sorry, yeah, at any normal UTMB race you would have had to have gotten on the podium, so top three, and then if you wanted to get an auto bid at any of the majors, you would have had to have gotten in the top 10. So it's kind of transparent. I mean, it's a little bit more transparent.
Speaker 2:Sometimes there's regroup, so it's kind of transparent. I mean, it's a little bit more transparent. Not like Hard Rock, yeah, not like Hard Rock, no, no.
Speaker 1:Hard Rock's kind of opaque. That's kind of a good old boys' club. It's a good old boys' club.
Speaker 2:I say we boycott Hard Rock, that's just my opinion Hot take.
Speaker 1:No, dude, I can't agree with you. I don't know. We'll get into that. Do you want to talk? Let's talk prize money. It seems like it really sucks to be 10th place in this race, but it really works to be first place. So if you win, how many euros do you think you get?
Speaker 2:Oh, okay, I'm going 3,500 euros.
Speaker 1:More, no, 13,000 euros. 13,000 euros, yeah, euros. And that's to men and women, 13 000 euros for first, and then it's 7.5 000 euros for second and the 5 000 euros for third, and then it just goes down from there and all the way down to, uh, eighth, ninth and tenth place, get a thousand euros each. So it's not bad. First, it pays to be, it pays to be a winner at this race.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, it always pays to be a winner, James.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so not bad. I got to say UTMB, not too bad. On the prize purse, that's a pretty good payout in my opinion. I mean, it would be nicer because I kind of look at this as like the 50K World Championship in a lot of ways. Oh yeah, you know, it'd be nice to see like 50,000 euros for the winner. You know that'd be kind of cool, Maybe like 60. Something real crazy A salary there, like help some people out. Yeah.
Speaker 2:They got plenty of money. They got bought by the Iron man Lifetime, right, so I mean they got plenty of money to be throwing around, you know, and then it brings big, big, big competition. People have been saying that this is kind of like the Golden Trail series. This is really where you are going to find all those people that have been running Golden Trail and you're really going to put them to the test. It's not exactly that, but people kind of look at it as that. This is really the Super Bowl for trail running, depending on the distance that you're running. It's true.
Speaker 1:I see a lot of people moving up in. You know, I see a lot of people moving up in distance and I see a lot of people moving down the distance. We've got, you know, some pretty notable people on the start list that are kind of jumping up to that 50K. See where they kind of stack up there. And then you see guys like Mr Jim Wamsley kind of moving down in distance, which is it's kind of interesting. It's a good melting pot of a field this year.
Speaker 2:No, no, it really is. And the thing is is that you know, this race has always kind of been looked at as a stepping stone to the bigger distances, right, you know. But at the same time we're starting to see people who are really just taking that 50K distance and they are honing their craft and they're sticking with it and they keep running the same race. You know, and look, I got to say is, if you find something you're good at, you'll be good at it. You don't have to go run the 100 miles. You could stick with your 55 miles or 55 k's. I see nothing wrong with that.
Speaker 1:It's true, man, it's true. I do want to bring up one thing. There's some interesting stuff to this race, stuff that I didn't know until I started doing some research and learned a little bit more. So there are technically no crude aid stations at this race, which is very anti-Euro, because usually in a lot of the Euro races you can just grab bottles from people off the side of the course. Another thing is there's a ton of mandatory gear, so you got to bring a lot of shit with you because there's no crude aid stations, so you're carrying most of your. It's kind of an art.
Speaker 1:This is a little bit of a more difficult dance where you got to carry all the stuff with you. So you'll see a lot of packs and we'll see what happens with this course, because it's going to be cold and rainy all week. High for race day is going to be 68. The low is going to be 48. 50% chance of rain, so lots of humidity in there. So it depends on if you get up high. Are they going to do cold weather kits, because UTMB always likes to throw that in. Maybe for the longer courses they'll have it, but it's possible that they'll make you have a mandatory cold weather kit for this race, which is kind of crazy. One other thing I think you'd find this interesting you can't cut switchbacks on this race. What do you think about that?
Speaker 2:Yeah, you know, it's funny. You should say that because you know one of the top Americans that's in this race, michelino Sanseri. I figured he's going to Europe. It plays right into his hand when it comes to cutting switchbacks. And I said you know I'm putting him at the freaking top. And then I see that you can't cut switchbacks in this race. And I say to myself I say huh, you know how's Michelino going to fare in this, now that he has to take an actual marked course? Yeah, I don't know. I still think he's got a good chance. You know, I have him, I have him in my rankings, we'll get to it. But you know, I think it plays into the hands of the Americans, because most Americans are law buying citizens, except for a few instances. So, you know, I would say that you know this is going to hurt the Euros a little bit, which is interesting because it's, you know, on the men's side, not a very deep field for the Americans. It's actually a very diverse field on the international side if you really look at it.
Speaker 1:I agree. I agree. Let's talk about some of the Americans in the race. I mean, I've seen just off the top of my head for the highest ranking athletes that are going to be out there with the biggest uh, itra indexes or utmb indexes, if you will. Michelino sinceri, obviously. Um, I have one question for you, as before we move on from michelino, have have the park rangers been been? Are they made aware that he's over there?
Speaker 2:yeah, um, the thing is, is that I think, um, I think that the the grand teton national park people, they did send a memo over to their European counterparts. They're not associated directly, but you know, when we talked about good boys or good old boys, clubs, kind of the same thing, rangers, you know, rangers see Rangers, so they let them know and they're going to be on the lookout. I hear that they actually have extra officials on the course, specifically because Michelino is going to be there to see if they can get him again and throw him in European jail once and for all.
Speaker 1:Wow, well, at least he'll get free health care over there. I mean, it could. That's what they say, yeah.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Another name that I had run into, mr Jim Walmsley. Pretty exciting to have him. I have a question for you about Jim. It seems like after he moved to France he developed a French accent.
Speaker 2:Oh, so wait. Okay, this is funny because I have a French person on the podium and that's Jim. I thought he was French. At this point, I thought that since he because he, I remember it was he went to UTMB a few years back and he got thwarted again. You know, it's like Jim just couldn't get it done, so moved out to france and he started doing the whole schemo thing and everything. And what's crazy is I I thought that he was from flagstaff. He comes back to america and I'm like who's this freaking french guy that we have here? Like he speaks really good english but like clearly, clearly french?
Speaker 1:I find it kind of funny considering like his wife, jess uh, who's an amazing athlete in her own right did not develop a french accent, jim, suddenly he even started. Yeah, he even developed an accent. It's kind of crazy. He really went all in man.
Speaker 2:If he's still an american, I say that we pull his passport, we pull his citizenship and we say you know what you want to be french.
Speaker 1:Get gone, this stinky, you know another name that I came across was Adam Peterman. I'm excited, dude. We finally get a Jim Wamsley Adam Peterman matchup for probably the first time ever.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, no, it's great. I mean, you know, and it's fantastic because Adam Peterman, you know, since his big debut I say debut because Adam Peterman has been doing it a long time, but you know, since his, his, his, his victory at Western States, he's been dealing with some injuries, you know he's been. He's been coming back slowly but surely. You know, in this year he had a good showing at Western States. It wasn't the best one, but he's coming back and I think that that training is slowly building. And you know what Adam Peterman is always a dark horse. You throw him in any race he could show out and I think that the matchup between him and Jim is going to be excellent, Both incredible athletes, French versus America. Finally, we get to see it.
Speaker 1:It's very exciting. I mean some heavy hitters for the men Also, we can't count out our boy, Cade Michael.
Speaker 2:Young gun.
Speaker 1:Yeah, young gun Posted a video yesterday of him and Justin Small and Justin Small has had as high I think as high as a fourth place finish at this race, training together getting out on the course. I think Josh, if I remember correctly, is going to be running ccc this year, so kade, uh, I you know kate had a seventh place finish at broken arrow. At the broken arrow 46k, almost knocked one out of the park this year also had a seventh place finish at canyons and was in the top three up until the very end of the race. Like I think this kid is is kind of the future of our sport in a lot of ways, like, especially on the american side definitely poised to crank one out of the park. I really like Kate, so that's someone I'm definitely looking into. I'm a little bummed. I'm happy, but I'm bummed. Ryan Becker is going to be out of this race, not going to be racing.
Speaker 1:Oh wow, yeah, he. I think he had some sort of small injury from speed goat after his speed goat win and he's decided to pull out of OCC to specifically focus on worlds where he'll be competing in the short trail. So I get it, it makes sense. You know it's a lot of trips to Europe, so yeah, it's completely screwing up my rankings now.
Speaker 2:I didn't realize that he was out. I had him as a lock for second place. I'm gonna have like, while we're talking, I'm gonna have to figure out who to throw up there. Um, but that's good, that's good information. I gotta change my fantasy draft here, um, on the free trail. So do you do that? Do you do the? Do you do the free trail? Uh, fantasy picks.
Speaker 1:I don't, because you would think I would do pretty well on them. And co-hosts I've had in the past, um, and specifically frequent uh co-hosts mr nick tusa always kills it, like he's always in the top ranking, like does very well at it. I don't really get into it. I don't know, I'm a little more of a contrarian. I I just you know it would be fun if we had uh and oh. This is a great conversation. What do you think about? Like actual betting?
Speaker 2:like what if we had like okay, like actual, like draft king live, like over under, like you could pick like random things, like over under on jim wamsley winning over under on michelino pooping his pants at the race, like you know, for the second time, you know there's a lot of things you could do with it, you know I love it, yeah, no, I you know, and I think that at the end of the day, a sport really kind of comes, comes to its own when you start betting on them, like horses, and the thing is is that you know if you really want the prize money to be bigger, you've got to get more money into it. You've got to get that, you've got to commercialize it more. I've been saying this for years, james we sit here and we talk about getting all these groups in here, all these disenfranchised groups, which, again, I do not disagree with. I think that's great. We got to give everybody a chance.
Speaker 2:But we need more rich people in this sport. We get more rich people, we get more money. You know these athletes. Look, okay, take all of your, all of your. You know your pet projects and all of those things that you'd like. You know, oh, the environment. No, sell out, get the money in there. Then let's go, baby, bet on him.
Speaker 1:That's a hot take, teddy, that is a hot, hot take. I I get it. I get it. I mean, I do think, like I said, like a little draft king sports book, little over under, uh, wouldn't be, wouldn't be the worst thing in the world, especially listen, I have texted dylan about this like numerous times, um, and they just free child kind of, just refuses to take that way, even though though I think Dylan could be like a billionaire by now. That he he probably brought, brought some sports betting into trail running, which would be crazy to think about, considering it's just a small grassroots sport, but that's a whole different conversation.
Speaker 2:I think that, with the fantasy, what I think would be really cool, what they would do, is if they did dynasty. They did a dynasty model where you could pick the younger guys coming up, right, you pick those guys. Dynasty they did a dynasty model where you could pick the younger guys coming up, right, you pick those guys, those you know, the people that you know nobody really knows about, and then you could just build this like massive roster. I don't know, it's fun, right. I mean, take it a little bit, you know, take it a little further. That d-bot you know, you know, you're a robot you could figure this out. Come on now. Oh, I forgot, this is right he is, yeah, he's a robot.
Speaker 1:He. The thread continues. All right, let's talk American women at this race and then we'll get into some of the storylines, specifically just on the women's side and some of the men's side. Sophia Lockley is going to return. This is going to be her second race this year, after her finish at the Mont Blanc Marathon, so I'm sure she's probably you know this will be her OCC debut, which is kind of cool. Sophia Lockley, if you guys are not familiar with that name, absolutely took the world by storm in 2023. With an incredibly high ranking in the Golden Trail Series, won a crazy amount of races, has done well at the races like Series and Alls Agama and Broken Arrow quite a few of them.
Speaker 2:It's going to be exciting to see her back.
Speaker 1:Hannah Allgood, after a top 10 finish at Western States, is going to be on the start list. Do you think it'll be all bad for all good, or do you think it'll be?
Speaker 2:all good for all good. I think it's James. This last time we had a preview. I really said it's going to be all bad for all good and I have to eat my, eat my words, eat the crow as they say, because I believe that she got first place at the at the canyons when that happened, or she got podium at the very least she won she ran.
Speaker 1:Yeah, she won it. Yeah, no, no, did she suck it again, victor? I can't remember.
Speaker 2:I can't. No, I can't. I think I want to say that she actually got first, because I remember seeing the result and I was like, well, that was an L Teddy.
Speaker 2:I actually don't have her in my top eight. I'm going to say it right now. I have her as an honorable mention though. So the thing is with Hannah is that Hannah can absolutely come out and she could easily win this one. All right, she could come out and do it. I just think that her focus on the longer trails is going to have a coming up a little bit short on this one. That's it. I'm not saying she's going to have a bad race. I just don't think that she's going to podium. That's it.
Speaker 1:It's interesting man. I got to be honest with you, like I, I bet the opposite for canyons, because she I like I didn't have her doing well at canyons because she had been going up and racing CCC and doing a lot of longer stuff comes to canyons and whoops ass. Um, she, I think she, her best distance in my opinion, is the 50 K distance. Um, she's very good, very strong uh rep in Colorado Springs. So I want to give her uh, very strong uh rep in colorado springs. So I want to give her, uh, her flowers for that. Uh, shout out to colorado springs good training ground. We just had you out here in colorado springs to mess around, oh god it was.
Speaker 2:It was so beautiful. I I cannot wait to get out. I gotta get out of this. This, this communist state of california, my god you know. Can you believe that? They, that they're charging property taxes? That is out to yin yang? You know, teddy buys a house, okay, and then they say, oh, you gotta pay. You know what? I'm not getting into it. Yeah, I'm gonna come out to colorado soon uh.
Speaker 1:On top of it all good, we have ashley, a brassavan, um. Ashley, hookah athlete. Um, this is gonna be which. Actually she did race at the broken arrow 46k. Had a great race. Um. Uh, actually start. I'm sorry, did race to the broken arrow. 46k was not her day. Has had some great races in the past though champion of the bartraw mountain race last year, usually always consistently on a podium. Um has had great finishes. The broken arrow 23k as well. This is a little bit of a step up in distance for her. Took some big swings. Like I said, a broken arrow. We will see um on top of that. Claire devore.
Speaker 1:A name who I'm really excited to see on this list is sarah carter. Uh, two top 10 finishes at golden trail series races at one tape pack, uh, and two um alpin, the what is it? Um spits splits. Uh, alpin glacier trail, which was a golden trail Series race the week before series and all. So I got to say this might be more of Sarah's course because it's a bit more technical, a bit more engaging, it's a bit longer. She tends to perform really well at races like that. So I would not be surprised to see Sarah Carter kind of in the hunt for top 15, top 10. Another name on athlete is Sam Lewis.
Speaker 1:And and then, last but not least and I didn't check my facts on this is lindsey allison. I'm not sure, because her partner is ryan becker, if she is going out to race this race as well. She was originally set up for ccc that was the a goal and then she moved down to occ once she got onto the world team. The only question I have is is she also going out? Because ryan's not what that looks like. I should have asked before and that was some bad reporting on my behalf, so I'm not sure if she's going to be there. I would say probably she will, but that's what I've got as far as the american women and men's contingent okay, yeah, no, I like that.
Speaker 2:Um, okay, let me ask you a question is ali mclaughlin running this race? Am I did? I get some bad info here?
Speaker 1:Allie Mack is going to be out for this year. It looks like we're not going to. I know she's been having some and she was pretty open about it on Instagram has had a little bit of a naggy injury and she is just looking to get herself 100% healthy for Worlds. So you'll see her on that Mountain Classic team at Worlds, ready to absolutely crush in typical Allie fashion worlds ready to absolutely crush um in in typical alley fashion.
Speaker 2:Big alley fan, no alleys, but oh, big alley fans, like, like mighty mouse, that one man, she's so fast, little, just that little thing just running around the mountains like a she's crazy, love it. But okay, now that's good. Good clarification there. You know, interesting, you know, a notable absence, uh, from this race is, uh, helen mino. Keep my name out your mouth. Falconer. So yeah, um, so that's interesting. Just throwing that out there, I know that, I know, I look, I know that on upon your podcast, I know she had already said some things about you and and about your, uh, your reporting, um, you know. So I don't want to necessarily stir the pot here, but this is, this is breaking news, is that you know it's a hoka, it's a hoka race.
Speaker 2:You know she's a hoka athlete. Um you know, maybe soon be, uh, maybe toddler tantrum athlete, we'll see.
Speaker 1:This is great.
Speaker 2:I mean, it's groundbreaking reporting, teddy I you got good sources, yeah, I got great sources. Yeah, wow, yeah did she was it occ.
Speaker 1:I thought she had done really well at CCC.
Speaker 2:Was it CCC? I think it was CCC. It might have been CCC, I'm not sure. I thought it was OCC. I could be wrong. See, that's. The thing is that Teddy's reporting is good and it's bad.
Speaker 1:Listen, I think you're get this man in the Pulitzer. Let's talk storylines here. I want to get into some more storylines. Are I want to get?
Speaker 2:into some more storylines.
Speaker 1:Are you familiar with Mao Yao, the 2024 champion?
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I got it on my list.
Speaker 1:Dude Mao Yao, absolute crusher. 2024 champion returns and she's also the current course record holder for this particular course. She'll be back this year. Men's third place in 2024, antonio Perez returns. He also has two second place finishes in the previous years. I don't know if you're familiar. You ever seen that Antonio Perez guy? He's a sky runner, runs for Asics. The dude is such a killer. He kind of sits back. I love his style of racing. He's not as aggressive as you would think, sits back and then goes for the kill in the second half of the race and just runs dudes down. Amazing athlete. Could be his year. Could be his year, depending on what we get here. Some notable absences Men's 2024 winner, eli Hemming, and men's 2023 winner and second place, francesco Pupi. Both are going to be moving up to CCC. I don't know if Pupi's ready for that. Eli challenge dude. Eli's, that's a tough nut to crack. Good luck to Francesco there. Eli's probably the best in the world at this point.
Speaker 2:I don't know Absolutely. You know, look, and I think that's going to be another exciting race. You know, obviously we're not necessarily previewing that one right now, but you know, francesco Poopy again a guy that you know, I counted him out at Canyons. What does he do? He goes and freaking, wins it. So here, note to everybody if Teddy picks somebody to do terrible, they're probably going to win it. So you know, but oh yeah, eli versus Francesco, that's premier right there, and David Sinclair is in that race too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh yeah.
Speaker 2:Broken Arrow. Look at Eli Hemming and David Sinclair. They was battling to the very end. We might have the exact same thing there. We might have two Americans, first and second, followed by Francesco Pupi, as the CCC podium. I mean, you count it?
Speaker 1:CCC is going to be crazy this year.
Speaker 2:All right back to.
Speaker 1:I do want to say women's second place and probably my pick for the win. Judith Weider is going to be at this race. She's going to be racing again. See, I do. I'm excited for you to water. One thing that she didn't do this year, that she has done in previous years is run series, and all in the weeks were leading up to OCC. This year she did not run series and all she seems locked in. I think this is her course. She's an extreme former orienteer, extremely good technical runner. It's going to be really cool to see Judith kind of throw down against Mal.
Speaker 1:We already talked about Mr Jim Wamsley. He's going to be racing for the first time since he spanked Killian's ass at Chianti. That's going to be fun. Shout out to Killian, since I had this in my notes Since moving to France, did Jim develop a French accent? Literally had that written down? We already talked about that. Maud Mathis it's going to be her first OCC. Maud is the former, actually, is the course record holder for Series 1A and she is also the course record holder for the Pikes Peak Marathon. Maud's a beast, yes, course record holder for the pikes peak marathon. Um, lots of beasts, um, yes. So jasmine lather is also on the start list as well. Um, yeah, can we talk about? Can we talk about her grand teton record? Can we? Can we bring that up? Does the world?
Speaker 2:I think we can't I think, uh, yeah, no, the world knows about it. I believe that, um, that sham website, fktcom, has decided to actually post her. So she went originally for the supported record on the new and approved. You know, the government approved, course, and I don't believe that one has been accepted yet. I think that they're still doing some funny business behind the scenes, probably talking to park rangers and things like that, because apparently you need their permission to set a record now. But she also went for the unsupported about a week later, not even on fresh legs. She just goes out there like a week later and then she goes and gets that one.
Speaker 2:So, pretty much the queen of the Grand Teton. She's coming in rolling in here. I have her very high on my on my list, james. I think that she is primed, ready to go. We're talking about all the vert in this race. I think that she is ready for that aggressive climbing followed by an extremely aggressive downhill. She's preparing for it right. She's run the most iconic mount, one of the most iconic, beautiful mountains in the United States, taking both records. Okay, she's coming to Europe. She's showing them what's up. This Canadian is pissed. The thing is, I don't think that she has let go of all that talk about the 51st state stuff. She is mad and she's here to show everybody that Canada still has a big old set of ovaries. You know what I mean? I would say balls. But I'm trying to be politically correct here and be more inclusive.
Speaker 1:I think that's a good. Yeah, jasmine, dude, I got to say top five finish again at Speed Goat, 2024 champion looks great. I think she's going to be able to have a great race here. I mean, it's her type of style course. Um, yeah, I'm excited to see her, see her throw down here. I think it's going to be a good day out for her. Um, sarah alonzo, sarah alonzo dude. Sarah alonzo, after fourth place finish in 2024. She is back, unfortunately dealing with some injury. Earlier in the season. Um, she was attacked by I don't know if it was a cow or a bull um, on a run and she had some broken ribs. Pretty crazy man like those. Yeah, yeah, those animals will get you. You know, this is, this is. You know? I've run past a couple cows before and they've given me dirty looks and I've wondered, like, can I get away from you? Can I outrun you? Listen, if sarah can't out them, I can't outrun them.
Speaker 2:This is terrible, oh God no, well, people always say, people always talking about how there's no predators in Europe, right, there's no mountain cougars, there's no bears, you know things like this, right? So people's not worried about it. But guess what? That makes the cows extra aggressive, that makes them spunky, it gives them a little bit of extra, like you know, like hey, you're in my territory, you know, and they get real angry. And if you look into a cow's eyes, james, I don't know if you've ever stayed into a cow's eyes, but who days man they? You know, teddy loves animals, but Teddy does not trust cows. And, sarah, I bet you doesn't trust cows either.
Speaker 1:At this point, yeah, I got to say, yeah, you got to like. You know it changes, Like when you have a glass of milk or eat a steak, it changes the way you think about it, you know.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, you. You eat it just as aggressively as they look at you. You eat that steak and you say guess what? Who win this time?
Speaker 1:Yeah, Stupid cow. We, we, sarah, we're with you. Oh, dude, I'm such a big sarah alonzo fan, I she's, oh, she's on my list. She's on my list. James a killer um, okay, one last thing before we get off of women's storylines um, jolene, chip and jago. Um. 2025 series and all winner. 2024 series and all winner.
Speaker 1:Um is going to be debuting at occ as well. She got in. I think it was a little late, um, she. I didn't see her on the start list a couple of weeks ago, um, but super excited that she's going to be lining up at this race. Um, it's going to be cool to see her kind of step up in distance. She also had a great race at the Mount Blanc marathon, so she can run that distance. This is just a little bit further. Um, it's going to be interesting to see how she kind of attacks the course and goes from there. So it's going to be fun to follow along.
Speaker 1:Agreed, do you want to talk matchups? I've got a list of matchups that interest me on the men's side. Yeah, let's do it. The first one I see is Jim Walmsley versus Adam Peterman. The second one I see is Jim Walmsley versus the World. I also want to see nadir versus davide, um, so I'm going to get into a few of these. So jim walmsley versus the world. The reason I say that is because, like, I can't imagine the level of pressure that dude probably has on him.
Speaker 1:Um, you know, former utmb winner. When jim you know jim swings, he usually doesn't miss and if he does miss it's usually a dropout um from utmb winner. When jim you know jim swings, he usually doesn't miss and if he does miss it's usually a dropout um from utmb. Last year and things like that over injury. I you gotta remember he's moving down in distance. Jim, interestingly enough, hasn't raced anything under a 60k since the 2020 golden trail world series championship like the final. They did one in the azores during covet and that was the last time. Jim kind of did some more if you quote, unquote will say shorter trail stuff. And also in 2019 he did race series and all and got third after winning westerns, you know. Did he win western states 2019? Yeah, after a huge performance at western states. So it's going to be really interesting to see jim fresh in a race like this.
Speaker 2:Yeah Well, you know you got to ask yourself. You know, why is he dropping down in distance? You know he's not. He's not doing it just for the giggles. You know he's not doing it because we he can't run a hundred miles. We know that's not the case. So I think that Jim's going to bring something special to the table. He, uh, you know again, you know his, his new I would say it's not even new. You know his French accent. You know it really kind of makes him feel at home. You know, when he's at that start line and all those stinky French people's around and it's just like, oh God, like you know and that was one of my other things about them starting it in the morning, at least we get to have those European people take fresh showers and then go to the start line because, my god, a 2 pm start in europe, it smells like a freaking farm it's true, that's true.
Speaker 1:Um, what do you think about adam peterman versus jim walmsley? You think you think adam's got a shot at beating him.
Speaker 2:Oh, yeah, adam's absolutely got a shot at beating him. You know whether or not he does it or not, you know I don't know if adam's completely. You know I don't know if Adam's completely back yet. You know I don't know if he's completely back yet. He might be. You know he looks happy, he looks like he's found that joy of running again. You know he's out there, he's training hard, he's smiling. You know he's out there in Europe right now. He's getting. But he is absolutely a threat. He is absolutely a threat and he could take Jim out for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean he had a great CCC last year. Him and Hayden Hawks, kind of, you know, battled it out. Yeah, it's just going to be really interesting to see that dynamic in a race, especially because they're very similar types of athletes. Both have a lot of range. Like before, adam got really big in the sport like he was racing short trail races and doing really well. Like in the sport, like he was racing short trail races and doing really well. Like he won the pikes peak marathon. He's done a lot of really high end or he went no, I think he got second at the pikes marathon.
Speaker 1:Man, I'm off today, um, okay, one more matchup that I'm looking at is nadir magway and davide magnini. Davide magnini is back. Um, just won the mont Blanc Marathon not too long ago. This kid is nasty dude. In 2018, 2019, 2020, in that range, this kid was winning and getting on the podium at pretty much every Golden Trail Series race. This is the heyday of when Stian was at his best. Before Remy was really Remy and took that step forward. It was a's who, like this, was back when Killian was running for Solomon, like back in the day, um, and Davide was an absolute killer, kind of ran into some issues with uh injury and is kind of back now. Like I said, won the Mont Blanc marathon.
Speaker 1:Um, it's interesting because Davide and Nadir are both Italians. Right, nadir has a little bit more of a relaxed approach, he's a La Sportiva athlete. He's a little more chill when it comes to. There's a great Golden Trail series episode about these two. It might have been back from 2019. It's been a few years. And talking about both of their backgrounds and stuff like that, whereas Davide and Nadir both are Italian Schemo athletes. So the way it works in Italy and Europe in a lot of ways is, if you're a Schemo athlete, for them you're kind of part of the government, which is interesting. So you're part of the military, so you're a member of the military if you will. So it's kind of just an interesting backstory, with these two Been friends for a long time. Nadir is nasty man Kid is so good, very good on the Skyrunner side. Davide's style is a little bit different. Does more Golden Trail stuff Hasn't in a while. So it's going to be interesting to see what these two match up to.
Speaker 1:One more matchup I have is Petter Engdahl and Roberto De Lorenzi. Roberto is, I think he raced like 30 or 40 times last year. Roberto is an animal. And then Petter Engdahl hasn't done much in the last year or so after kind of dropping out. What did he race? Did he drop from UTMB last year? It was either last year or the year before he dropped from UTMB. So Petter is kind of back and doing something shorter. He's a third place finisher from 2022, I believe, at the OCC side. So and then kind of went up. I think he won OCC in 2023. That's right, cause John Albin would have won in 24. So, yeah, petter, petter's uh had a lot, has a lot of history with these races, so it's going to be interesting to see Petter in this race and how he mixes it up. Um, yeah, that's kind of what I have for match-ups.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah no, there's some great matchups here going into it. I think that what we're going to see this weekend I think with this race specifically any of the races that we have you're going to see the chances of somebody new not even new, but like you see a new face maybe that Americans don't see very often. You're going to see different people on these podiums. It's not like UTMB Over here. It seems as though we really focus on the UTMB portion of the live stream and that every other race kind of just kind of takes a back seat. But I would encourage the people check out OCC, check out CCC, some of these shorter races. Not that CCC is a short race, it's still 100K but OCC I love it. I love the matchups.
Speaker 2:I am really excited for Adam Peterman and Jim Walmsley. I really think that's going to be beautiful. I was really hoping Ryan Becker was going to be here. I really wanted to see Ryan Becker versus Michelino Sanseri, because those two are always neck and neck when it comes to podium finishes here on the United States. But you know, ryan blew his load over at Speed Goat, apparently, and that's okay, ryan. We hope you get better soon there buddy and Michelino blew his pants.
Speaker 1:Not good yeah.
Speaker 2:I don't know if a lot of people know that about Speed Goat, which is funny Because, know Ryan, you know naturally took the, took the spotlight when it came to, came to his victory, and you know all credit where credit is due. But the funniest part of it is that Michelino, who was a, you know was a, was a fave, was a, you know a favorite to win the race, goes out and quite literally craps his frickin pants. Literally craps his pants, on course, and it's like man, you know. The thing is, though, he was hanging out with garrett, uh, garrett, the parrot corcoran over there. So you know, the night before they're just smashing hot dogs and natty lights all night long, or pbs, I'm not sure exactly which one it is. It is their favorite now, their cheap beer, but it's just hot dogs and beer, hot dogs and beer, and guess what's? You know you call it gut training, but you know, just came out his butt and that's it. This is true.
Speaker 1:This is true, hopefully. Yeah, I think I think he learned his lesson. I think he'll. I, I would. I wrote one thing I wrote down for folks to watch someone whether it be Michelino, I'm thinking, I'm thinking someone on the American side is going to have a really good race. Uh, whether it be Michelino, I'm thinking someone on the American side is going to have a really good race. Whether it be Michelino, cade Michael or Sam Hendry even though Sam Hendry is a Canadian, he's not an American. That said, sam Hendry races stateside a lot. Yeah, one of those three, I think, is going to have a breakthrough, amazing performance.
Speaker 1:Michelino has raced this course before. I think it was a 22, 22 or 23. He was a top 20 finisher, um, just behind the first female, um, I think I. I think Michelino has a lot of opportunity to do really well at a race like this. It just depends on where he's at with fitness. Did not race a broken arrow, did race at speed Go. It had some things to figure out, you know. I think he's trying to get everything together, figured out for worlds where he'll probably have his best performance of the year, but I think this is going to be a good opportunity to kind of for him to show who he is and his level of skill.
Speaker 1:Um, kate michael as well. I think kate's got a great opportunity to do well at this race. And then sam hendry as well. Um, you know, sam's been kind of quiet. I haven't really seen him on the scene since last year at Speedco we had a top five finish, so I think Sam's got an opportunity to do pretty well here. Kids uh, one point in time was on the Solomon international team and just a freak athlete. Um, I have a question for you Do you think Jim's a lock to win this race?
Speaker 2:Um you know no no, uh, you know people are going to say that you know, because, again, look, big name, big name out there. People is going to say, you know, because again, I think that people look at the, they look at the names, they look at what he's done in the past. I don't know, I don't think he's a lock. I don't think he's a lock. There's just too much talent here. You know, you mentioned Cade Michael. You know these young, up and coming studs here. You know this got people's, got something to prove. You've got, you've got. You've got lots of guys on my list. Look, jim's. I'll be honest, jim's at the top. I don't think he's a lock, though, james, I don't. That seems silly to say he's a lock at this point in his career. He's great A lock, not too much good talent.
Speaker 1:Do you think so? This is something I've been thinking about lately. There was a great interview I can put in the show notes I don't know if I texted it to you. It was an interview with Killian and Jim and there was I think it was Brian Meltzer interviewing them, and it was just really interesting to get to see the way they think.
Speaker 1:And one of the things that blew me away was kind of the way Jim ranked everything. Like how do you rank a goat? How do you rank an all-time great? How do you rank a great? And he had like different levels of wins for like different things. I don't really consider Jim a goat yet. Like I would put your goats as your Killian's of the world, your Joseph Gray's of the world. Those are the great, truly the greatest of all time. Courtney DeWalter, I could see that you know there's an amazing argument there. Time courtney de walter, I could see that you know there's an amazing argument there. And then people of the past as well. Um, I'd say jim has established himself as an all-time great. What do you think?
Speaker 2:I would agree with that. I would say that at the end of the day, you know, look, if we want to talk about, we want to talk about all-time greats. Look, jim, I think has cemented himself as the western states all-time greatest right. You know he's come in. Think has cemented himself as the Western state's all-time greatest right. You know he's come in. I think he did a three-peat.
Speaker 2:Now you could go back and you can argue like Scott Jurek, yeah well, first of all, scott Jurek's a vegan. Number two, you know he did it back when there was absolutely zero competition. So he has that going against him. You know, and look at it, jim had to come to UTMB how many times to get his ass whooped by Killian, how many times? And then he has Zach Miller, which again great athlete in his own right, zach Miller's pushing him for him before he gets his first victory there.
Speaker 2:The European side, I think some of them again, like Killian, absolute GOAT, right, you know, joseph Gray, as you said, absolute GOAT People that are in their craft and they are at the top all the time, zero excuses. Can Jim get there? Absolutely, he can get there. I think that with this win, if he goes and he does win this one. You know he's putting in a little bit more on that resume when it comes to all-time great, we'll see. But I think you were right. I would agree that we still need to wait before we crown him greatest American trail runner of all time.
Speaker 1:In my opinion. I think he's the one I do like over Scott. I would call him the Western States go. Not that I really like people are going to listen to this and be like James knows nothing about ultra, and that's true. That said, I would consider him over Scott, the Western States Goat.
Speaker 1:Just given the level now of how competitive it is for the time and given where the technology is and you start to break down times, I think Jim is perfectly capable of running under 14 hours. He's shown it so many times and the next year, if he's back, he will be chasing. I think he gets one more. In my opinion he gets one more Western States win and if he gets one more UTMB win, I would consider him a goat amongst that echelon. Even if he gets one more Western States win, I would throw him in there. Like why not? I would like to see him do more short trail stuff, like if he goes and wins series and all I'm like that. I think that's the indicative indicator of like who is a goat is is range over time too yeah, one of the things killian has shown.
Speaker 1:You know, joseph gray has always been such a um specialist right, he's a vk and mountain classic specialist right, more particularly on the vk. But he's won more championships and world titles than like anyone combined. Obviously I don't even know how many he has at this point he's going. More championships and world titles than like anyone combined. Obviously I don't even know how many he has at this point he's going for I don't know his gazillionth world title this year. Like that's a GOAT, I think. Also, range is a big deal too. You throw Jim in the mix when it comes to the GOAT conversation. If he was to win like a series and all, like Katie Scheidem was damn well, one series and all this year. That's a different conversation, but you could throw her in that conversation, you know, on the women pretty soon if she goes and wins a race like that. So, yeah, I don't know, agree some thoughts? Um, all right, let's get into the women and then we can talk about uh, matchups and and picks for our um, what do you call it? Uh for our podium and uh, we'll close it out. Um, yeah, so matchups on the women's side udith versus mod, mods first occ udith's, I think third or second or third uh occ. Gonna be cool to see them both swiss athletes go up against one another. Um in dual malyau versus jolene jolene, like I said, 2024 and 2025 series and all champion mao yao uh. 2024 occ champion. Um.
Speaker 1:And then sarah alonzo and sophia lockley. Like sophia has had a really up and down season. She's only raced once, didn't have a crazy good performance, is she? Is she back after 2023, taking 2024 for the most part off? And then you have sarah alonzo in there. How is she feeling after injury with broken ribs, getting attacked by a cow like we're? We're, and she's so talented and so good, had, like I said, fourth place finish in 2024 at this race. It's going to be interesting to see some of those matchups, uh, and some of the names to watch and kind of how they fit into everything. Um, yeah, so yeah no, absolutely.
Speaker 2:You know, and again, I think he's right. You know, meow meow, I really like her. I really do. I think that she's one of the. I got her on the podium. I really think that she could vie for a first place win. I just think it's fun, um, but she's absolutely incredible athlete and I have her right now. Uh, you know, um, as far as I have her on the podium, that's it. You know, I think that it is crazy. You know, we have these Chinese runners coming in and, man, they are really throwing down in the trail scene. I mean, like in the last few years, my god, you are seeing some absolutely spectacular athletes. It's wild.
Speaker 1:I don't think it would be a stretch to say I can, like, I thought um, like I wouldn't be surprised to see a chinese athlete on the, if not podium or win utmb one of these years for sure, oh yeah oh yeah, oh no, I'm, I am.
Speaker 2:I am right there with you, I'm right there with you. All, right before we get into final what.
Speaker 1:Before we get into final picks, I do want to give one shout out for do you, did you look into, etc. This is I didn't. I sprung this one on you.
Speaker 2:I didn't tell you, yeah, no I, I did not look at, etc. No, I you know. In fact I had no idea it was actually a race the reason I'm bringing up etc.
Speaker 1:Is because we've got some notable american athletes, uh, including mutual friend dan kurtz in this race, so I wanted to put some shine on our boy dan um etc is a 15k race, so it's 9.3 miles, 3937 feet of climbing.
Speaker 1:It's like a cirque series race. Man starts in cormier, climbs this beautiful pass, this mountain pass, starts in cormier, does this beautiful loop and then comes back down into cormier. It's going to be taking place this tuesday, august 26th, at 2 pm. Again, these weird start times. Can you just give me like a 9 am start or like an 8 o'clock?
Speaker 2:start.
Speaker 1:Why do we got to do this? But some notable American names Dan Kurtz, want to give him a shout out. Dude, dan is so nasty at these distances, like I would say, the easily the best American do have not made outside of, like maybe Liam as well. Easily the best American do have not made the world's team like should be on the world's team, in my opinion. Um and Dan's, I think, pretty hungry to have a good season. So I think Dan's going to crush it here.
Speaker 1:Um, janelle links as well, satisfy athlete, and then Jessica Bray, you, um hope athlete, who is going to be on the world's team as well. Um, jessica is on the vertical team. She got on the vertical team of broken arrow scent and then el hussein is in this race too. So that's going to be interesting. I don't know how. He seems to thrive on the technical descending. Dan kurtz thrives on the technical descending. I think this will be a cool little match-up to see these two together in a race up front. Um, I don't think they've raced each other actually, so it'll be cool to see Dan and Al Husein kind of mix it up, because probably the two best men in that race. So that's ETC. I feel like we got to put some shine on that. Good luck to Dan. Yeah, all right. Good luck, danny. Boy, let's go, and then let's get into our podiums. I'll let you pick the women first.
Speaker 2:Okay, all right, I'm going to go podium.
Speaker 2:I already said it. You think you probably already know where I'm going with this. I got Jasmine Lauter as number one. She's winning. The Canadian is pissed. She's coming. She's going to go show those Europeans what is up.
Speaker 2:I'm really really, really excited to see what Jasmine can do, especially after her recent Grand Teton record-setting runs. Number two I got Judith Weider. You know she's got the experience, you know she's really strong right now. I think that she's a lock for second place. And then number three, I got Meow Meow. Like I said, she's coming in. That's my one, two, three, now fourth place, I think can. Also, I think that she could get anywhere in this podium is Jolene, I think that she could do it. I mean, again, I think that you say coming up in distance a little bit. You know, maybe not, but she could cement herself as a great. You know great. These Kenyans is crazy, man, they're so fast, I swear. And yeah, that's. And then I have, you know, I have Caitlin Fielder and Sarah Alonso, and then I think it's Teresa LaBeouf. I like I put her in there because it sounded like you're close.
Speaker 2:Teresa LaBeouf OK, it sounded like to me when I read it. It sounded like you're close. Teresa laboe okay, it sounded like uh to me when I read it, it sounded like shia labouf, so I was like I know him as an actor. I'm gonna put her in there, um, but those are the ones that I uh, that I got here, uh, but yeah, jasmine udith and meow, meow, that's it I like it.
Speaker 1:I like that's a good, solid podium dude. Yeah, I gotta give a big, big shout out to jasmine. It'll be cool. I I definitely think she's easily in the top five. I think she's going to have a great race, all right, so I'm gonna go with mine. I got Judith wider winning. I think she'll. I think she's going to take one. I mean, last year she was in second. I think she'll take, take a step forward and get the dub here easily. I have J Louther. Is it Louther or Louther? Even though I've had her on I've literally had her on the podcast I can't remember how to pronounce her last name. I feel like such a piece of shit.
Speaker 2:I just call it DJ Jazzy. Jeff, that's what I call it, but I don't know.
Speaker 1:Actually, fair enough, fair enough, okay, jazz in fifth I've got, and then just off the podium or just out of the top five, I have Therese Lebeau, maude Mathis and Sophia Laughley kind of floating around in there. Okay, in the back half in the top ten.
Speaker 1:I mean dude, anything goes Like, for instance, if this is a, let's say, it turns out to be a rainy day as opposed to like a rainy cool day as opposed to a really hot day. Um, like in the past, there has been a lot of like toasty days here. We can remember last year, uh, a very notable video of Eli just suffering in the heat. Um, I think this year it is going to be a little bit different. If we get a rainy day, that mixes things up. Judith Judith is very good on technical terrain, like I said many times, like this is her kind of course. Um, I think she's going to be very hard to beat, in my opinion, and I think Alonzo as well. You know, we'll say we'll see some. Some athletes do better in the heat. Some athletes, uh, you know, do better in the terrible conditions. Um, all right, let's let's talk men. Uh, I'll let you take it away with your men's top five.
Speaker 2:Yeah, this one's going to surprise a lot of people here, Maybe not. All right, I got Michelino as number one here. Reason being he's angry Last year with the whole Grand Teton thing. He's just been seething for a year and I think he needs to go out and he really needs to show up. You know a lot of these athletes go out there and you see them doing their training runs and they're still doing like 10,000 feet of vert in the week. But leading up to this thing and I'm like that's crazy Michelino made that same mistake last time he was out there racing and this year I think he's changed that. He's relaxing, he's eating croissants, he's drinking espressos and he's staying hydrated. He's going to go out there. He's going to get first place hydrated. He's going to go out there. He's going to get first place. Second place OK, second place.
Speaker 2:I got Cade Michael. All right, Number one. I think that the name confuses me. He's got like a last name is a first name. I think it should be Michael. Cade Sounds cooler, but whatever, we're going, Cade Michael is number two. Number three we're going. The French, Jim Walmsley I think that you know he's going to be the only international person on this podium is going to be Jim. Fourth place another American Guys. It's an American takeover. We got Adam Peterman, I think he's coming in. Fourth and number seven, I got this guy. It's Gautier Bonacaria. I don't know, I think it's French for giant. Bonacaria is what his name means, and so obviously he's packing heat and he's ready to bone the competition. So do you know what I'm talking about? Yeah, it's like Gautier Bonacaria. Yeah, I don't know, but I got him up there. You don't have him on your list.
Speaker 1:Who are you talking about, dude?
Speaker 2:I'll send you a note. Yeah, dude freaking, he's got to have. Yeah, I'm just saying, like I said, I'm not good with French names, but yeah, you know what I'm talking about. It starts with a G. But yeah, you know what I'm talking about. It starts with a G G-A-U-T-I-E-R-B-O-N-N-E-C-A-R-R-E-R-E-R Something I have no idea who that's on that list. Exactly yeah, dark Horse, freaking giant guy with a freaking hog on him, all right.
Speaker 1:Okay, okay, all right. Okay, okay, all right. So you got the American sweep, then I like that Wow.
Speaker 2:American sweep, but I also have some notable mentions here. I got a Benglin fan. I want to throw a Chinese runner in there on the men's side, because the thing is is that if they end up overthrowing the United States, I want to be on the record that I am also an ally, okay, All right, I see, I see banglin okay, solomon yeah all right, all right yeah, solomon athlete there, we go, there, we go, all right, so I'm gonna, I'm gonna hop on here.
Speaker 1:I got first place. I'm gonna go, mr jim wamsley, um I think jim is gonna be. Yeah, I think jim's hard to beat dude. I think it's gonna be.
Speaker 1:It's gonna be okay, I think it's gonna be a good day out for him um, I think, dude, like I said I, I think jim is just that good um that, and maybe I'm wrong, but he hasn't been beaten in a long time. So we'll say in second place. I'm gonna go davide magnini. I think davide continues his success um, from um the mont blanc marathon. I think he's back in third place. I'm gonna go christian jones. So christian jones is a hoka athlete from the great britain. Um, absolute killer. Had a sixth place finish here last year. These guys thrive in really terrible, like technical, rainy, terrible conditions. I think if the day worsens and we have bad conditions, you could see christian win this race, um, so I've got him in third place. I think he's gonna absolutely kill it. Um, it's gonna be really fun to see him race. In fourth place I'm going to go Antonio Perez, who's had so much success on this race Third place finished last year to first second place finishes in the years prior. In fifth place I'm going to go Roberto DeLorenzi, a Swiss athlete another Swiss athlete on there, and I think he just races so much. And, uh, swiss athlete on there and I think he just races so much and is just a very consistent athlete. I think he'll have a good day out there, back half of my top five. I do think Michelino has a breakthrough I'm sorry, back half of my so five through 10, I think it's very possible Michelino improves on his top 20 finish, or he was like top 25 in 2022. I think he moves up and gets the finish that he wants. I think he's very capable of getting himself into the top 10.
Speaker 1:I see Adam Peterman in the mix there. My question is is after a really bad day see, there's so much mental game to races like this, and my question is I really respect and like Adam a lot. I think he's a very solid dude and I think he's an amazing competitor and amazing athlete. My question is after a really tough day at Western States, where he just kind of molded in and just got him, you know, finish the race and I'm sure obviously did not have the race he wanted to, my question is, with that is, where does he go from here? Does he still have those skeletons in his brain? You know? Is it going to be a tough day for him? Is he able to overcome that? Maybe it's a great day, I don't know. You know, some athletes are really good at forgetting and some are not, so we'll see what happens with Adam. Um, I'm also going to throw in Hannes Namburger, I think he'll. He's going to be in the mix. The Dina fit German, dina fit athlete Um Luca Del Perro as well.
Speaker 1:Petter Engdahl Can't forget Petter. It's weird to not have Petter in my top five With the lack thereof some consistency. It's going to be interesting where he goes for this race. Very well could win the race or be on the podium, wouldn't be surprised. I just need to see more from him for something like this. Cade Michael as well. I don't know how Cade shakes out. Is he top 15? Is he top 10? Is he top five? He's talented enough to be top 10. It's. It's just where. Where does that race iq come in? Um, I have sam hendry in the mix and then I have nadir magway, uh, in the mix as well. So that's kind of it's going to be really interesting. These, these picks are always hard to make, so we'll see. No, I think they're solid.
Speaker 2:I think they're solid picks. They're good picks. I like it. I'm excited, james, I really am. It's going to be a great week of running. Again, this is our Super Bowl. We're ready. Yeah, do we want to do a lightning round or no? I don't know. If I didn't prepare any lightning rounds. I mean, if you want, I I've never had anyone do a lightning round with me uh, I don't, I didn't have anyone's prepared for you. Um, let me see here. Um, yeah, um, I mean, if you got, if you got some questions, I'll answer them. I guess.
Speaker 1:All right, I can throw. I could do a quick, quick lightning round. Okay, all right, I'm ready give me one second okay, all right ready, go okay. Who's gonna be the top american women in this race? One second, okay. All right, ready, go Okay. Who's going to be?
Speaker 2:the top American women in this race. Ooh Lightning Crap, ooh Skip.
Speaker 1:Okay, who's going to be the top American man in this race? Michelino Sinceri. Oh, boom. What's the over-under on Michelino pooping his pants again at this race?
Speaker 2:Oh man, I think we're looking at he poops his pants by mile five over a bet on the under. We're going to take the under.
Speaker 1:Okay, who is the top French athlete in this race? Jim Walmsley? Okay, and where does I don't know. Okay, done, okay. Perfect, I'll give you two out of three.
Speaker 2:I think that Jim, I think that Jim is definitely going to be the top, top French athlete here, no question, you know, yeah, I, you know, I would love to throw an American in there in terms of the top. I just think that the female Americans I'm going to go Hannah Allgood, actually, I really think it's going to be. It's probably going to be Hannah. Yeah, I could see that.
Speaker 1:I could say I think it's awesome, awesome. All right, teddy, anything to end on, Are you? Are you appreciate you? It's good, I'm good, I'm good, I'm good, I'm good.
Speaker 2:James, I think you know, right now morning coffee is starting to hit, so this is perfect time to end.
Speaker 1:Teddy, thanks so much. I appreciate you, man. Thank you James. Yes, sir, people, what's going on? It is summer guys, super exciting Adventures in the mountains, summer races. Um, you know, it's about that time to start thinking about your gear, you know, I, uh, I want to say our brand partner, ultimate directions, got you guys covered, pop on over to ultimate directioncom.
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