is there money in alt cycling?

are these "small" alt bike companies actually big and rich?? class struggles in the alt world.  riding in the heat.  the Tour de France has begun!  debutant gifts of false winnings, and an exciting 3 weeks to come.  

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:07

Reporting live from D.

SPEAKER_02 0:14

Actually.

SPEAKER_03 0:16

This is All Five Night. Alternative Radio.

SPEAKER_01 0:24

Or alternative cycles. I'm your host, Ronnie Romance.

SPEAKER_03 0:29

I'm your other host, Aria Millie.

SPEAKER_01 0:33

Million. Aria. Oh, that's French.

SPEAKER_03 0:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 0:38

Aria tens of millions.

SPEAKER_03 0:44

Aria millions.

SPEAKER_01 0:46

Apparently. Aria is rich, and we're going to get to that later on in the episode.

SPEAKER_03 0:51

Oh, today we're mad, aren't we, Kenny?

SPEAKER_01 0:53

We are a little bit mad. You know, something that we also might be mad about. Everybody telling us to stop talking about the Pro Tour stuff in the beginning of the podcast.

SPEAKER_02 1:02

Well, now everyone's telling us, hey, we missed the road race coverage.

SPEAKER_01 1:07

I don't know. Come on now. And come on now is still in the lexicon, everyone.

SPEAKER_02 1:13

Still funny to me. Feel free to use it.

SPEAKER_01 1:15

You know, so you know, we're going to get into the you know, some pro racing roundup. We've got some real life report back, some real hot, steamy rides on July 4th, and and prior to that. Around the world, everything's been pretty, pretty, pretty, uh, yeah, pretty parbroiled. Uh great, tell you, tell them while you're mad. Is there money in the bike industry? We're going to answer that. And then we've got a little problem, I we might throw this in the beginning, a little pro racing gossip. And you know, we'll wrap it up. But I have a feeling, folks, that you're gonna love this episode.

SPEAKER_02 1:46

You're gonna like the way you look.

SPEAKER_01 1:48

I guarantee it. Well the NAMS warehouse. Well, sweetheart, why don't we uh you want to get right into this?

SPEAKER_03 1:55

Let's talk about the Tour de France.

SPEAKER_01 1:56

You know, as everyone, if you don't know already, the the Tour de France is happening right now.

SPEAKER_03 2:04

One of the most celebrated. It blows all of the other ones away. A sick blow.

SPEAKER_01 2:11

It's a blow bang. A French blow bang. So, you know, it's definitely lavender scented. We've got we, you know, on July 4th, our nation's 250th birthday.

SPEAKER_02 2:24

Which is like a speck of dust to the French.

SPEAKER_01 2:27

They had the audacity to start the biggest bicycle race in the world.

SPEAKER_03 2:32

Yeah, yeah, it's kind of fun going into the Tour de France from Tour divide. I have been I've been kind of like saying tour divide instead of Tour de France.

SPEAKER_01 2:42

You've been saying tour divide?

SPEAKER_03 2:44

Divide. But yeah, I mean, the biggest race, the men's tour de France, is a lot bigger than the women's too. So the men's tour de France started ju July 4th, and it was team time trial, which is kind of cool.

SPEAKER_01 2:58

They haven't started with a team time trial in a very long time.

SPEAKER_03 3:00

And it started in Barcelona.

SPEAKER_01 3:02

Barcelona.

SPEAKER_03 3:03

Okay, whatever.

SPEAKER_01 3:04

But they the French changed all the names to like Barcelona.

SPEAKER_03 3:08

Barcelene. They would. They got their own names for stuff. The French, they know what they're doing. So it was a joy to watch Filippo Ghana in the hot seat for a good long while with his whole team. He is so cute when he smiles. A new star is born in the universe.

SPEAKER_01 3:30

I'd like to think that too. It's his smile, it's his smile. He's so cute and so hot at the same time. Yeah. I I I guess I've already just gushed about Filippo Ghana. But you haven't. So let's let you. Yeah, let's let you have.

SPEAKER_03 3:45

You've gushed more about Jonathan Milan, I think.

SPEAKER_01 3:47

Well, but I I get it.

SPEAKER_03 3:49

I get it. I get Ghana. You do.

SPEAKER_02 3:53

From the north, from the south.

SPEAKER_03 3:55

He likes the Italian crowds. Oh, that was good. I was trying to you know.

SPEAKER_01 4:02

So, folks, I guess this is like a an olive branch to you alt cyclers out there who are not into pro racing. And I guess this is for us to argue, pro racing can be alt. Following pro racing can be alt. We've told it before in other episodes that pro racing is so small in this in the scope of sport.

unknown 4:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

To the to what the riders get paid, to, you know, the the resources. I mean, it's a big sport in that a lot of people can come out and watch it, like in the Tour de France, you people are aligning the roads, it's free to watch. So you've got, you know, it's the the arena is, you know, can be 200 kilometers long.

SPEAKER_04 4:42

Fair.

SPEAKER_01 4:42

And so there's a lot of people that watch it. I guess the the main, I guess when I think about it, like, you know, when I think about, oh, what's wrong with pro cycling? Well, there's a lot wrong with pro cycling, but the biggest thing is that it it's all corporate sponsors. You know, that that's how these people get paid. They have to wear corporate sponsors on their backs. I guess it's kind of like NASCAR and stuff like that in that that regard. So you have all these like these strange sponsors. A lot of them are are notorious, and you know, there are some entire nations that sponsor teams, and they're generally petrol states. Uh so it's just I think, you know, yeah, you could say it's uh yeah, you could you can say it, or I mean, heaven forbid that we talk about the uh Israel Premier Tech from last year.

SPEAKER_03 5:28

Heavens. Well, um but there is a lot of alt to following big races, you know, like last year they had a huge protest in solidarity with Palestine against Israel Premier Tech as a team. And we saw shutdowns of races, we saw human barricades, we saw flags everywhere. It was a beautiful coordinated campaign over all three grand races. I mean, grand tours. We saw the same tactics in the Vuelta as we saw in the Tour de France, as we saw in the Giro d'Italia, and they got they got what they wanted from that protest, from those nonviolent, disruptive, and sometimes scary protests.

SPEAKER_01 6:13

It's easy to be.

SPEAKER_03 6:14

And so, like, that's the alt lives there. The alt for me in watching big races like this comes from there's a lot of troubling things about the culture of racing, and like this is where we can kind of talk about it. And there's there's so many ways of looking at what an alt bike could be. This is just Ronnie and our take, because we like to listen to ourselves talk about this stuff, and we think about it all the time. And it's just something we do. It's fun.

SPEAKER_01 6:47

This is our this is our sport.

SPEAKER_03 6:49

If you wanted, if you want to start an alt bike podcast as well, hell yeah, do it. If you want us to be guests on it, we'll come up to your show.

SPEAKER_04 6:59

We'll come talk about the show.

SPEAKER_03 7:03

But yeah, anyways.

SPEAKER_01 7:04

Yeah, so you know, you you could take it's you for for me the the the pet the the petrol state stuff and the and the the infamy behind some of the sponsors is a funny like I I take that as a for me that's part of the joke. Like it's part of like why I like fantasy metal too, is that these people are see they're serious people, yeah. Extremely serious yeah, their lives come off, you know, to to us the entertainment as a as a um we consume it through an entertainment lens because that's just it just becomes to me it becomes kind of cheeky, just kind of funny. Yeah, yeah. I always loved, you know, in in the old in elder days of of cycling, going back, we're talking about the Map Pay team again. That's it's Elder days. Quick step is mattresses, you know.

SPEAKER_04 7:51

Oh, is it?

SPEAKER_01 7:52

Yeah, yeah. And uh and they used to have like like when Tom Bonin was on the team, they used to have I remember this advertising. Yeah, you're blowing you're blowing boogers out. I'm talking about Tom Bonin, you're blowing boogers all over the screen here.

SPEAKER_03 8:04

I've got a tissue, and it's just a little summer cold.

SPEAKER_01 8:07

Well, Tom Bonin, previous Hottie, you'll you'll hear him.

SPEAKER_03 8:10

Previous Hottie.

SPEAKER_01 8:11

Previous Hottie. He was they the advertising campaign was like the whole Quick Step team and their little kits all on the same mattress together, like holding pillows.

SPEAKER_02 8:20

Like stacked on top of each other?

SPEAKER_01 8:21

Basically. They're serious.

SPEAKER_02 8:24

I love that.

SPEAKER_01 8:26

So, you know, obviously a mattress company isn't a or maybe it was maybe quicksput wasn't the mattress company. It was another subsponsor of theirs.

SPEAKER_03 8:36

Regardless, there's a bunch of stuff.

SPEAKER_01 8:38

And it's just the these are obscure. You know, there's there's like what was there's another team that's sponsored by uh like uh farm my mom, farming combines, like that was Premier Tech. That was Premier Tech.

SPEAKER_03 8:52

Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:53

So you had that team last year sponsored by the State of Israel, and it wasn't the State of Israel. Okay, it was a rich. It was a billionaire from Canada. Very proud to be Israeli.

SPEAKER_03 9:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:03

And then the subsponsor of that team was a Canadian combine manufacturer.

SPEAKER_03 9:09

Yeah, which might yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:11

So it's anyway, it's just fun. This stuff is is just silly.

SPEAKER_03 9:15

There's if you get into it, there's so much drama to unlock from what's happening behind what the pros are actually like the actual sport of it, to like kind of like the back back end business deals and like like trying to poach other riders and trying to give Paul Atreides, aka Paul Sexis, Lisan al-Gayib, all the money's in the world.

SPEAKER_01 9:40

Like you know, there's a lot of storylines, and again, these riders are just as talented as they've ever been. Everyone is optimized. It's just interesting to see how what how far you can push the non-recumbent bicycle. Basically, these guys should all be on recumbents and then they'd be going real fast.

SPEAKER_03 9:59

You've been on this recumbent campaign for quite a while.

SPEAKER_01 10:02

And I'm just gonna you make all these fancy aerobikes, the recumbent already exists. Like I'm I'm more aerodynamic than the than the new specialized SL9. To your recumbent campaign, I say have a seat.

unknown 10:17

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 10:17

On my gold rush. Take a seat on that one.

SPEAKER_01 10:19

On my Ron's gold rush. If you go to R-AN-Sbikes.com, that's uh Rans recumbent. That's actually how we chose Ron's bikes.com. One letter, and you come to a recumbent company.

SPEAKER_03 10:32

Jokes are not landing this morning. Have a seat, have a seat. Okay, we're talking about the creme de la creme of the sport in the men's world, the Tour de France. So we are today on stage four.

SPEAKER_01 10:43

Yeah. Well, you know, stage one was on the fourth of July. And it was, we were saying, a team time trial. And Yonas, the form a former champion of the Tour de France before Tade started to really be dominant. Yonis was like, you know, he was He had the green jersey or the yellow jersey two years in a row. And then he's had a a number of injuries since then, and he's not nearly as dynamic of a rider as as Pogacha, Pogachar, whatever you want to call him, Tade. So it was really neat to see him and his team win the yellow jersey on stage one. Well with Ghana. By like 11 seconds. Yeah, yeah. They went faster than Filippo Ghana, which is the fastest man. I mean, yeah. He's got the hour record.

SPEAKER_03 11:26

Yeah. Um, so you know, the uh jersey for a chunk.

SPEAKER_01 11:33

And a special and a new special specialized shiv.

SPEAKER_03 11:37

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 11:38

I'm such an S-works boy.

SPEAKER_03 11:40

You are. You are a specialized boy. I think the subliminal marketing from Seinfeld really worked on you, bro.

SPEAKER_01 11:46

Well, no, that was Klein. But yeah, specialized. But they were always mocking past it. At a shop. Yeah. Specialized makes if you want, if you want like modern shit.

SPEAKER_03 11:54

So, anyways, we are not sponsored by them or anyone for that matter. Why do you keep groveling at the foot of Brooks and Specialized? For France's sake.

SPEAKER_01 12:06

France's sake. So it was really cool. Just really cool to see Jonas take the Ila jersey, I think, for the first for the first time in the first stage. Quite some time.

SPEAKER_03 12:14

Yeah. And he looks good in yellow.

SPEAKER_01 12:16

He looks great in yellow. They were super happy. They couldn't have had a more successful team time.

SPEAKER_03 12:21

Team. Yeah. They everybody on that team turned themselves inside out for Jonas.

SPEAKER_01 12:26

We're pumped. Yeah. Everyone, I the whole Peloton is rooting for Jonas right now. That's what I've understood.

SPEAKER_03 12:31

It makes a time trial a lot more interesting. But then when you have a crash, like Astana did.

SPEAKER_01 12:36

Oh my God.

SPEAKER_03 12:37

You take the whole team out.

SPEAKER_01 12:39

Look up if you if you're into this speed suits. Yeah. You look up my Instagram algorithm, it's all crashes. Yes, like fuck. I I didn't even know I liked crashes so much, but that's what they show me. Anyway, I would look up the Astana crash. Look up the Astana team time trial crash if you want to see a bunch of spandex clad Kazaks just completely yard sale on some very expensive bikes.

SPEAKER_03 13:02

And then they crashed again, members of that team on the second.

SPEAKER_01 13:07

It's still didn't go so great. It's been really hot in Europe, as you may or may not know. Uh that's been a theme of I think we've been talking about the heat in Europe for like three weeks in a row now.

SPEAKER_03 13:18

Yeah, they banned the ice socks, you know, like the the penny hose socks for the team time trial in the in this uh because it makes you more aerodynamic. Yeah, but it melts.

SPEAKER_01 13:30

Like these guys are soaking wet all the time. I can't I'm I can't imagine the use of the city.

SPEAKER_03 13:35

UCI is so dumb. I think that the alt take that we have on most like roadie things is that we hate the UCI.

SPEAKER_01 13:44

Just let these guys use their eye socks and ride recumbent.

SPEAKER_03 13:49

Seriously.

SPEAKER_01 13:50

So, you know, a lot of a lot of heat. The second the second stage was this is kind of a this is a really exciting first week of the tour because the second stage already had, you know, it was already a hilly stage, and it was, you know, this was going to be a GC battle right away because, you know, one of the GC, the top GC guys already had the yellow jersey because of the team time trap. So you've got Jonas in yellow. You know, the other GC guys have got a counter. And so we were we were it we I knew we were in for a great race that second day, and it did not disappoint because you want to run us through it?

SPEAKER_03 14:23

So the last two KMs, like everyone who's being paid Boku bucks in cycling is up there in the bunch. There is the obviously the Tade and Isaac Romero del Toro, there is Jonas, there is Paul Atreides, there is Remco. So they're all there and they're all like foaming at the mouth. Just rabid dogs.

SPEAKER_01 14:54

Like I think it's it's great to understand how excited everybody, not even the the like big pros, but the domestiques, everybody is teed up, cued up for this tour. Like they dream of racing this race their entire lives.

SPEAKER_03 15:07

So then there's a moment where Todd and I Isaac are having a little convo while they're you know in the front.

SPEAKER_04 15:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 15:14

And I think that was a moment where Phil Liggett was like, at this point, Todd was like, How are you feeling? You good? You want to go for this? Let's go. And that's exactly what they did. They like shot ahead. Isaac was essentially being pulled by Tade. And then in like the last like 600 KMs or something, Todd Tade was almost like playing a game with the rest of the top five there, where he was kind of slowing them down, looking back, making sure they were kind of staying back. It was like it looked like a sheep herder, you know, like who is like a linguistic. He was hurting the sheep. So so Isaac could be up front, and he had obviously plenty of energy, but over the finish line, Isaac Romero del Toro, our boy from Ensenada, our representative for Turtle Island, young, sweet Mexican boy wins his debutante.

SPEAKER_01 16:21

The consummate debutante.

SPEAKER_03 16:24

This is his first time in the Tour de France. This is his first real stage that's not a team trial, and he gets the gift and later the lift. Well, because Tade picks him up, and there's like so much water dripping down.

SPEAKER_01 16:40

These guys are a walking yeast infection.

SPEAKER_03 16:42

Oh, right now, yeah. They're like he's lifting them up. So Todd obviously has plenty of energy.

SPEAKER_01 16:48

You know, the the if if I could if I could interject without talking over you.

SPEAKER_03 16:53

Well, you just did. All right, let's go.

unknown 16:55

Come on, Matt.

SPEAKER_01 16:56

The those those final those final meters when Todd A is hurting the sheep. We're gonna refer to the sheep as the the sheeple of the his other competitors.

SPEAKER_04 17:09

I love that word.

SPEAKER_01 17:10

Yes, that's it. And he is in such a comfortable position.

SPEAKER_03 17:16

Ronnie was shrieking and laughing.

SPEAKER_01 17:19

He's so confident. He's so confident that him and well, first off, when Del Toro accelerates, there are a few people that look cooler than him. Like he just he uses his whole body. His face was like grimacing and all these contorting in all these different ways. Tade's is looks just the same as it always does, kind of weird. Yeah. And uh and he Tade is just looking behind, looking behind to make sure nobody is coming, no sheeple are coming around them, you know. But they had so much room that Tade was just like, uh, I'm gonna give it to him. I'm gonna give it to him. This is a gift. You are mine, referring to Del Toro. And in my mind, immediately I was just like, oh, what a gift! I can't believe it's a ring. It's a freaking ring, Del Toro. And Tade like starts like pumping his fist like crazy as Del Toro's crossing the line right in front of him. And it's this big moment because Del Toro, like as Arya suggested, this is essentially his first real stage of his first ever Tour de France. And he is gifted. He didn't, he wouldn't have won the stage. This would have been Tade.

SPEAKER_02 18:26

Yeah, he was coaching him the whole time.

SPEAKER_01 18:28

Tade was like barely breathing.

SPEAKER_02 18:30

Definitely the last.

SPEAKER_04 18:31

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:32

And is and just let him just like, I'm going to give this to you. And I mean, the commentators will say, I mean, the the people who are analyzing the race will say, well, this is gonna come back to Tade tenfold when he needs a lieutenant like Del Toro in the High Mountains, if he does ever need somebody in the high mountains. I don't think Jonas is gonna come close to him this year, honestly.

SPEAKER_03 18:51

We'll see about that. We'll see. We'll see. We'll see. I'm the perennial Jonas fan.

SPEAKER_01 18:56

But you know, it's I believe in that boy. So anyway, that was a that was a big moment. Lots of lots of photos. That that that Tade leading Del Toro across the line, because you can imagine Del Toro being like right now, they're like bros, but you could imagine Del Toro being a competitor. If Del Toro wants to have a career, he needs to be a competitor to Tade because he's has the potential.

SPEAKER_02 19:18

Oh yeah, there is a fun story in the making.

SPEAKER_01 19:20

There's a fun story in the making here. You know that you know there are the people.

SPEAKER_03 19:23

Del Toro definitely seemed like overwhelmed with like be seeing him on the podium and just observing his facial expressions. You could just tell that he was like soaking in the moment and like just being really grateful. He was like nearly emotional, but I could just I could just sense like the electricity buzzing off of him. And in like that little video they did of his like childhood, like his his little like vignette.

SPEAKER_01 19:56

Anybody who's done the Baja Divide has ridden through and sonata. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 20:00

It's I mean, the mountain biking is sick, and that's what he was saying. He got into mountain biking with his brother and then started winning and got a got a hunger for it. And he was saying that Nairo Cantana, seeing Nairo, another brown boy from well, Nairo's not from Mexico, he's Ecuadorian. Where's Nairo from? Colombian?

SPEAKER_01 20:21

I can't believe that. I can't believe you're going to one of your fellow brown boys.

SPEAKER_03 20:26

I know. I he's Colombian. I loved seeing Nairo racing when I was getting into cycling at first because there aren't a lot of representation from beyond Europe. So it's really nice to see riders like Nairo Cantana and uh Egan Banal, who has won the entire Quintana's won too. I wasn't around for that. But you know, it's just it Richie Carab has. It's nice seeing a bunch more representation. And I think the sport has obviously a very long way to go in terms of representation, but the the crop right now is just freaking deep.

SPEAKER_01 21:09

Well, Del Toro being a Mexican is really cool.

SPEAKER_03 21:12

It's really cool. I like having a Turtle Islander, North American. I guess we had uh We got plenty of Canadians. We got some Canadians.

SPEAKER_01 21:19

People forget about Canada.

SPEAKER_03 21:21

Who's that guy who won the Puida Dome against Michael Woods? Georgie. Yeah. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 21:26

On your favorite Israel Premier Tech team.

SPEAKER_03 21:29

My favorite.

SPEAKER_01 21:30

You want to bring him back?

SPEAKER_03 21:32

Oh good. Uh listen.

SPEAKER_01 21:34

So I I want to ask a question. What would what would what would how would you feel if your first stage, if you were a promising cyclist, not only not only a promising cyclist, but you know, you're probably gonna be the the you know you're a big deal. Okay. You haven't proven yourself yet, you're a debutante in the tour, you're del Toro, okay? How do you feel? Being gifted your first stage wit and the in a grand tour and the Tour de France.

SPEAKER_03 22:05

If the person who was giving me the gift was like, you know, like Adam Yates or something, I'd be like, man, what the hell? You know? But if the person giving me the gift is the most gifted gifts. Someone who does not like to take an L ever, like seeds, you can see it in his eyes. When the gift giver is of that caliber, I will take that gift. No matter what it is. I will take that gift. I think it is I think I think it's a you think it's a beautiful gesture. I I don't think it's like a beautiful gesture. There's more beauty that I see in cycling than like this kind of gift gifting, especially this early on without as much of a storyline. But I think that it shows camaraderie within the team and it shows that Todd is capable of gifting, and just him shepherding everyone else uh in that last what, six 300 cams or whatever was 300 meters was really entertaining. So like yes, I will take the gift. What would you do? Would you take the gift if you're a Debbie?

SPEAKER_01 23:21

I was thinking about that and it really I it would piss me off. Like yeah, yeah, and I'm and that's not something I I don't use those words widely. I would not, yeah, that you know, to me that would that's embarrassing. Because Tade was clearly not breathing and and is giving, and it's it's his like I would want to win my first stage of the Tour de France. Like I want that experience to be of my own making. There's but I'm saying I don't want somebody that could have just sprinted past me to be like, no, you I insist, you first. Oh I haven't proven myself. I haven't. I'm just this is my first tour stage.

SPEAKER_03 24:00

You haven't earned the chips since I said you haven't earned that.

SPEAKER_01 24:03

And and I and to be up on stage like receiving that win and everything, like I would just feel so awkward. Like it's just you haven't earned it. And and not only have you not earned it, like there's footage of you not earning it. That's gonna be replayed. Like, you know, you know how NBC does it. They put together these montages of each other. And it's just gonna be like Tade being like, this guy, this guy, I could have won, but no, I let him do it, you know, and it's just not, it's not, it's it's patronizing. It's not my wouldn't, I would not, I would not feel good about that. And it would, it would burn inside me to the point where I would need to prove myself. Oh for you know, I would need to prove myself, but at the risk of melting that relationship.

SPEAKER_04 24:50

Oh, oh, melting. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 24:52

So Toddy wants wants that loyalty, you know. Toddy makes himself look all cool and like collective, and uh, and by all accounts, he's a really nice guy, but you know, it's as racing. You can't, it's as there's oh yeah, you know, this is racing.

SPEAKER_03 25:06

Everyone turns into alien versus predator when the race is on. Yeah, yeah. Slice and dice. Yeah, I could see that. I could see what you're saying. Like that kind of like once you think about it, after the the wave of embarrassing, the wave of uh winning that that euphoria kind of wait wades off. You're like, wait a second.

SPEAKER_01 25:25

Like you want your first tour stage win to be special, like that's a big freaking moment for uh but people spend their entire lives chasing this.

SPEAKER_03 25:35

Well, I hope he has many more.

SPEAKER_01 25:37

He will have many more. I guess that's the the consolation. He will have many more, and I guess Tade knows that too. But the first one is is special, you know.

SPEAKER_03 25:44

It'll be it'll be fun to see how this arc goes.

SPEAKER_01 25:47

Anyway, we've got to move on to stage three and and and move on to our yeah, stage three.

SPEAKER_03 25:52

Todd wins again. So he takes the yellow jersey.

SPEAKER_01 25:57

Couldn't help himself.

SPEAKER_03 25:59

But it's like the he has the yellow jersey by like probably milliseconds. He's tied with Jonas, but they gave him the yellow.

SPEAKER_01 26:07

So he made back like 30 something seconds on Jonas.

SPEAKER_03 26:10

And he's got the everybody was there.

SPEAKER_01 26:13

You know, the the brake was the brake almost stayed away with a Frenchman uh on EF, don't remember his name. And then he they they caught, you know, close to the line, and there ended up being another, you know, because yesterday was their first like quote unquote mountain stage. Still had it had like 13,000 feet of elevation gain, which is pretty wild.

SPEAKER_03 26:32

Yeah, yeah. But it's not it's it's sure 100 and like 120 or something.

SPEAKER_01 26:38

But they uh they uh they classified it as a mountain stage, but it's the e like the easiest mountain stage of them all. But you know, it turned it all these stages turned into GC battles when Tade's around. So, you know, he pushed the UAE pushed the pace and caught the break, and and then there was another battle royale at the end for sprinting to the line. It was an uphill finish, right? Was it an uphill finish?

SPEAKER_03 27:03

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 27:03

And uh they had to it was also 40 kilometers from the they almost canceled the stage because of wildfires. Yeah. We forgot about that.

SPEAKER_03 27:12

Yeah, that seems to be the theme is uh the climate change is. I mean, they might have to do the tour earlier.

SPEAKER_01 27:18

Yeah, you know, but yeah, then you run into snow. I mean, there's really is the tour will always be July because that's also France's national holiday. You know, they have France has July, like their summer vacation.

SPEAKER_03 27:29

Oh, and they took that from us too.

SPEAKER_01 27:34

And you know, they they traded it for the colors, their constitution, their holidays. Their hall of Versailles. So, you know, they had couldn't have spectators the last 40 kilometers into France. So the race crossed from Spain into France yesterday, through Girona, where I where most pro races live, pro racers and influencers alike. And not not not to mention Pathless Peddled.

SPEAKER_03 28:02

So moving on to real life report back, speaking of July.

SPEAKER_01 28:06

So let's let's wrap up the let's wrap up the tour stuff. Okay, so it's been wrapped up. Yeah, well, let's wrap up the tour stuff. We're already a half hour in. You're gonna hear more about it because next week, uh guess what? You're gonna we're gonna have another license.

SPEAKER_03 28:18

We'll get into a little bit of that gossip down the road. So real life report back. Real life report back. I don't think I don't think I don't think we need to do that.

SPEAKER_01 28:33

Okay, I like it. So the as we've already noted, the 4th of July was last weekend and it was hot here.

SPEAKER_04 28:41

It was really hot.

SPEAKER_01 28:42

It was uh we had we had two days leading up to the 4th of July here in Connecticut where our outside thermometer read a hundred degrees. And I can't recall that ever happening since we've lived here, lived back here in East Adam. Um I don't think we we've we've had we've reached like upper 90s, but triple digits. Um we haven't had I mean, I am a hawk on this stuff. I look at that thermometer. What do you read? I'm looking at the weather all the damn time. I'm a white male. I love talking about the weather.

SPEAKER_03 29:11

He loves it.

SPEAKER_01 29:13

Okay, so anyway, I'm talking about the weather. And it was 100 degrees, two days in a row. Sassy about it. I'm talking about the weather.

SPEAKER_03 29:21

It's his passion.

SPEAKER_01 29:22

This is my passion.

SPEAKER_03 29:24

Potato salad with raisins in it and the weather.

SPEAKER_01 29:29

I did not, well, we were getting our swim hole and a bunch of other stuff ready before our we are we the last two years we've held a little 4th of July party with a 50-mile road ride down to Rocky Neck, which is a beach, a really beautiful beach near us that just gets completely like just maxed out on 4th of July every year. Yeah. The entire uh towns of Middletown, Hartford, Springfield, they all come down and descend upon Rocky Neck. And I'm telling you, folks, it is a scene and a half. You could hear so many different types of music, see so many different types of people just enjoying themselves out on the beach. I love seeing like the like there's kids running around just playing frisbee, like playing tag or whatever. It's just a free-for-all.

SPEAKER_03 30:16

It's like what you babies and diapers tumbling down hills to their death.

SPEAKER_01 30:20

So many different, so many different meats being cooked.

SPEAKER_03 30:23

Oh, yeah, that's a lot of smells.

SPEAKER_01 30:26

But it is a scene. I love seeing it.

SPEAKER_03 30:28

It just reminds me, you know, it just quintessential summer because Rocky Neck is where my eighth grade beach day was. I don't know if your school ever did that, but I lived probably like 20 minutes away from there, or high school or middle school. And to graduate middle school, like we had a beach day, and the whole school went there. It's a state funded park, and it's at the beach, and there's like a little concession stand, and the infrastructure with like the the showers and all of that stuff wasn't there when I was 14. But it's got this really nice to see.

SPEAKER_01 31:05

It's a beautiful spot to ride your bike down too. We we do we we we do the spring fling goes down there when there's a lot less people down there when we do that. But like on these hot major holidays, it gets people are walking like several miles with coolers and their kids. Buckets and stuff buckets of stuff, fishing rods. They're walking several miles because they can't park close to the beach and they have to.

SPEAKER_03 31:25

Well, the parking fills it up. I think that's the problem. So it's nice to ride. It's an entire village that bumps up. It's like a rent fair.

SPEAKER_01 31:31

I think most of our uh fellow cyclists out there will agree with us that it's a cheat that cycling is a cheat code, and it's really cool to use it as such to kind of infiltrate these public gatherings and just be like, well, I'm just gonna ride in there. And no one says anything, and because it's not illegal, you could just do it. You're a pedestrian when you're on a bike, you know.

SPEAKER_03 31:50

There's not a greater feeling than passing like 10 to 50 cars in a hundred degree heat. In a hundred degree heat while they're waiting to enter this park that you're going into, and you have like just air flowing in your hair underneath your helmet, and you're just breezing right by them. And they're all looking at you like, Lookie, you got all your stuff on your bike already. You're just gonna roll right in. Hell yeah, we are.

SPEAKER_01 32:18

Yep, yep. So, you know, it's a it's a great feeling. So we do we do this every 4th of July, and then we're and Balsi and Caroline got even got in the water.

SPEAKER_03 32:26

They went down and got in the water. I don't like brackish salt water. And I had my like clippies in.

SPEAKER_01 32:34

But I mean, we and then we have a little party afterwards. So we had like nine or we had a I think there were nine of us that met here.

SPEAKER_04 32:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:41

And we we had a we had a bit of a uh snafu with this this chocolate, this, this, this mushroom chocolate. But it's like an ammonita, you know, yeah. There's these head shops that sell these.

SPEAKER_04 32:55

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 32:56

I don't know, questionably legal. Or I mean they're not, you who knows what's in them. But there are these certain, as long as it's not psilocybin, you could sell it, I guess. So ammonita, which is like the uh, you know, those crispus, those things that those toadstools that grow underneath pine trees up in the north, that you're supposed to drink the pea of the reindeer or your or your shaman to get high off them.

SPEAKER_04 33:18

That's what it was.

SPEAKER_01 33:19

You could just get those things in in chocolate bar form now at Old Glory. That's that's our little our local head shop that's been around for like 50 years. So, anyway, somebody picked up one of those chocolate bars, and a few of us had some. And oh my god, they tasted so it tasted like soap first off. Like it was future, it was really bad. So we should have known right then and there. And it was already we were like just leaving.

SPEAKER_03 33:40

But mushrooms taste bad.

SPEAKER_01 33:41

It's a hundred degrees, a hundred degrees out, and we're just like, okay, yeah, that's a great idea.

SPEAKER_04 33:46

And so yeah, we live for this shit.

SPEAKER_01 33:48

We live for this shit. Let's go do a 50-mile ride. And and so, you know, the the effects ranged from not feeling anything at all to I need to call an ambulance. And those are the effects. So, you know, so it's it's you know, take it as you will. That was our that was our ride back and forth to the beach. It was very sweaty and hot. I don't know how a lot of y'all are dealing with these hotter temperatures and getting your rides in. As like I was saying, the two days prior, I didn't get any riding in because we were working on swimming and stuff. But I have, we're lucky enough to have a a body of water that stays cold to dunk in and out of for most of the day. We don't have we don't have air conditioning here. Uh air conditioning is pretty new to New England. We've never really needed it. I still would argue that we don't need it. I like to feel the heat so it doesn't shock me when I go do go outside.

SPEAKER_03 34:41

That's a really good point, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 34:43

You know, and it just makes me makes me get a little bit more creative, I guess, with how to stay cool. So going in and out of the water, drinking cold liquids, staying hydrated, stuff like that. But you know, you're good at that. I'm good at that. I'm good at I'm good at optimizing.

SPEAKER_03 34:58

I'm not good at that, and I was okay.

SPEAKER_01 35:00

So you're okay too. I mean, I was just brain melt, like didn't didn't make full sentences the whole day, but uh and then we got back to our our party that we had planned for, and a bunch of people were flags and lights and stuff. I mean, a bunch of people didn't make it through the I mean the bike ride was intense because of the heat, and a lot of people were not into partying after that. And it was kind of hard to rally people to get down to the you had set up all these nice flags and and we just had like this really cool like we'll use it for next year. We'll use it for next year, exactly. But right as we got everything set up, started cooking some barbecue tempeh, that's when the s the thunderstorms rolled in. And oh boy, did they ever we got dumped upon, dumped, absolutely dumped upon. So we've like a truck. Yeah, moved the party up into the barn, just saw some crazy lightning, some beautiful cloud the cloud lightning, big storms coming through.

SPEAKER_03 35:53

It was awesome watching it from like the big barn door. There was so much heat lightning. Actually, the game we were playing was was that Thunder fireworks? Oh yeah. Or what was the last one? Or a car like exploding.

SPEAKER_01 36:11

Who knows? What was it? 250-year anniversary, you don't know what you're gonna get.

SPEAKER_04 36:15

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 36:15

So yeah, no, those are I thought it was a great day. It was a great, great excuse to get a bunch of people out on the bikes and have a little party afterwards. So it was very cool. Uh so those are our real life report backs. You've been very good. I mean, you didn't make your 150, your 100, 100 mile, were you trying to get in per week?

SPEAKER_03 36:34

You said over 100 miles this week, but I was at like 70 this past week.

SPEAKER_01 36:39

69, it was 69.

SPEAKER_03 36:41

Okay, you know what? 69.7 to me is 70, right? But the heat and everything, I just the heat, you weren't feeling it. I just I really wasn't. I had all I was moving so slow. I wasn't really having the best time on the bike unless I was moving.

SPEAKER_01 36:58

Right, right.

SPEAKER_03 36:59

And then yeah, it was.

SPEAKER_01 37:00

Yeah, it's stop. We like to, as all cyclists, I think we're defined by how long our stops are.

SPEAKER_04 37:07

You know?

SPEAKER_01 37:08

Um yeah. And so, and so, you know, it's uh unfortunate sometimes that we can't stop for as long as we want to and enjoy the the scenery because you gotta get back on your bike to have that air conditioning.

SPEAKER_04 37:19

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 37:19

So I don't know how runners and mountain bikers do it because you're not getting that air conditioning. You know, you're just sweating.

SPEAKER_04 37:25

Are you a runner or a mountain biker? Tell us.

SPEAKER_01 37:28

Yeah, try, yeah, tell us. I've tried to run I've tried to run a mountain bike in the summer, and you know, that's a lot, a lot of sweat, folks. That's a lot of sweat. I remember how bad your gloves your gloves can smell. How bad your gloves can smell in the summertime with all that sweat.

SPEAKER_03 37:43

I know that's right. Because it's damp over here, too.

SPEAKER_01 37:48

Good God. That's a lot of laundry, folks.

SPEAKER_03 37:50

That's a lot of laundry. Okay, well, I think that that pretty much wraps up our real life report bag. That's right.

SPEAKER_01 38:00

I'm getting a I'm getting a side eye here. You don't like my sound effects.

SPEAKER_03 38:04

I asked in earnest. With a cheerful expression.

SPEAKER_01 38:10

Well, hopefully, hopefully some other folks do out there.

SPEAKER_03 38:12

Yeah, yeah. We've got black cat and golden retriever energy here.

SPEAKER_01 38:18

Well, you're gonna get some more sound effects here, I'm sorry to tell you. It's okay. Tell them while you're mad. Folks, tell them while you're mad inside. We're not, you know. I got uh I got this message. I'm just gonna leave everyone unnamed on here. I got this message from a uh uh Instagram friend yesterday.

SPEAKER_02 38:41

Cultural attache.

SPEAKER_01 38:42

Yeah, that I thought was pretty funny. I was I answer my I on Mondays, I answer my DMs. I just like sit down and and hammer them out. I like generally answering just about any question I get.

SPEAKER_03 38:54

He hates leaving people behind, making people feel like they're not being heard by him, which is so sweet. Well, you know, it's I know how it feels to be abandoned.

SPEAKER_01 39:07

Well, uh without getting too personal. Yeah. I got a I got so you know, somebody I guess this is we're why yeah, why are we mad here? I guess why we're mad here is because people think what that we are people on the internet seem to think that we are rich.

SPEAKER_03 39:25

What? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 39:26

But but where are our riches? So I guess uh I guess I could be mad at the people that thinking that we're rich, but I could also be mad because if you're gonna think we're rich, we might as well be rich. And where are our riches?

SPEAKER_03 39:36

Where are they?

SPEAKER_01 39:37

Where are these riches?

SPEAKER_03 39:39

I would love them.

SPEAKER_01 39:40

Tens of millions are owed to us. Where are they?

SPEAKER_03 39:47

Can you imagine? Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 39:49

So I think that there's an interesting misconception. Misconception. And well, I guess we should start off start this off by there's an interest there's a interesting riff in alt cycling in in punk in all of punk rock culture, where if you're rich, you have to hide it, so essentially. Or you know, it's it's not cool to be rich, right?

SPEAKER_04 40:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:09

In the alt world, it's I yeah, we just go outside. I think that's a fact. It's just not cool to be rich. Am I right?

SPEAKER_02 40:16

I guess, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:17

You're you're you you know much more about class warfare and class struggles than I than I do. But so I'm just gonna ask you these questions. Sure. Well it's an interview. And you I know personally that you have a lot of baggage around class jumping and like and just uh you know, growing up poor and fee and how that makes you feel in this world.

SPEAKER_03 40:42

Yeah. And so I don't granted, I'm still poor, but globally I'm not poor. Right, right. Because I live in the US and Right. And I am the standards are different.

SPEAKER_01 40:53

I'm a I'm a tall white male. And so I might as well I I'm I'm rich in many ways in this country already.

SPEAKER_03 41:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 41:02

And but you know, that doesn't matter. Yeah, right, right. My family's been here for a very long time, since the days of the building.

SPEAKER_03 41:10

So cultural privilege that comes with that as well.

SPEAKER_01 41:12

And we never left New England. So, you know, I've got a lot of that going for me.

SPEAKER_03 41:18

But uh that doesn't mean that we have tens of millions. It doesn't mean that I don't even have one of a million. We don't even have half of a million.

SPEAKER_01 41:28

Like, I guess we should just I guess we should just preface this right here. We live in a multi-generational home with Arya's two brothers and mother. We don't own this house. Arya's mother does.

SPEAKER_04 41:40

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 41:42

We we uh yeah, we just we don't we I think a nice thing about us is that we don't have any debt. That's really nice.

SPEAKER_03 41:48

And we don't have kids, which is also nice. But I think these are lifestyle choices that we have made since we were 20.

SPEAKER_01 41:57

Right.

SPEAKER_03 41:58

I just never wanted to be adulthood.

SPEAKER_01 42:01

I was scared of being poor because my like my dad, my dad's family like lost all of their money. And so, and then he well, and he was Okay, now you're sounding rich. My dad's family lost all of their money.

SPEAKER_03 42:13

Well, you know, they almost had to give up our Nantucket house.

SPEAKER_01 42:17

We did not have a Nantucket house. Well, that's you know, that's we did have we did have uh like uh you know eight eight employees, a manufacturing business in New Haven, Connecticut.

SPEAKER_04 42:26

New Haven, GE Wheeler.

SPEAKER_01 42:27

Um the GE Wheeler Company, we made actually made children's tricycles. And so yeah, that's that's those are where our riches came from.

SPEAKER_04 42:36

Yeah, the children's tricycles.

SPEAKER_01 42:38

And then as the uh eminent domain came through, putting I-95 and I-91 through new downtown New Haven, um, we lost the the building that to the GE Wheeler Company operated out of. And my grandfather was never able to make it back into a profitable bus profitable, profitable business, and so lost the business, nearly lost the house. It was a rough time, but now I'm back making bicycles. So, you know, after my dad was a charter sports fishing captain.

SPEAKER_03 43:08

So he had to make his own and learn a whole new skill, and you're doing the same.

SPEAKER_01 43:13

So, you know, it this is a tangent now. But you know, it's it's just one of these things where just a little background. Like, Jesus, it's funny to pretend. Every once I think I have like mentioned that and be like, people would be like, How is he doing all this? And I was like, it's because of my trust fund.

SPEAKER_03 43:34

Oh, so maybe it's five people are like no one knows if New Englanders are being sarcastic.

SPEAKER_01 43:39

Yeah, we're sarcastic people. But you know, it's I think in in in and I like expensive things, you know. So I could see how that could be.

SPEAKER_03 43:48

Yeah, but it doesn't I I just think that it's a good question around, you know, like class consciousness in the time of social media and AI. Right, right. Because you can ask AI any question and it'll just pop out with some generic answer that is, you know, 50% of the times not true.

SPEAKER_04 44:10

Right, right, right.

SPEAKER_03 44:11

And then you start to believe the answers because that's just how we've been conditioned into finding facts is by just Googling it or whatever for the past 15 to 20 years.

SPEAKER_01 44:21

There are certain meme accounts out there, we won't name any names, but that are dragging small bike businesses.

SPEAKER_03 44:30

And I think it's under this understanding, this this misunderstanding that these smaller bike brands have millions and millions of dollars, which we can tell you not true.

SPEAKER_01 44:42

So so definitely not true for us.

SPEAKER_03 44:44

I was sent this, I was not true for Ultra Dynamica.

SPEAKER_01 44:47

Well, I was sent this, so this is the this is to get down to the meat and potatoes here. I was say loud, hon.

SPEAKER_03 44:53

Say loud.

SPEAKER_01 44:53

So I was sent this by a by somebody, and it just it the caption was must be nice, bro. LOL. All right. So this meme account says fashion brands like Crust and Swift cause problems of inflating secondhand markets and empowering elitism through a facade of being small. Swift is a nine million dollar company. Don't know where they're getting that number. Crust, along with Ultra Dynamico and Ron's, are probably in the tens of millions. This is not small, I will agree. That's not small. Not at all. The inflation of used parts and the cult following hurt the less fortunate and help the ones who already have enough. I call it gentrification because their notoriety is the same. Okay, that was the end of the screenshot. But yeah, I I got a great chuckle out of that. I responded to the fellow, well, I I how does that I live with my mom? Tens of millions of dollars yet. Yeah, we live with your mom. And we and our bathroom don't even get us started on the mom. Oh my god. There I have I have a propane outdoor heater set up in the bathroom to give us hot water. And there's essentially a hole to shit in and like two planks leading in. Two planks. We've been living like this for six years.

unknown 46:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:09

Because we're spending all of our money from this podcast on ice cream.

SPEAKER_03 46:13

We have our priorities.

SPEAKER_01 46:15

But uh, you know, it's it's I and now it got me thinking. I was like, well, where is he getting these numbers from? Like, what what is this? And then it got me thinking. I was like, this must be a chat, like a chat.

SPEAKER_04 46:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:26

Like this has got to be an like asking AI scenario because there's no nothing out there that would tell you other like I don't know, there's nothing like out there published about this. I know like like Swift, I've known Martina. I know that she's never seen a million dollars. And I and if you want to like, she's been very straightforward about what happened to her business. If you I there's uh what's the name of that podcast?

SPEAKER_03 46:51

Second nature.

SPEAKER_01 46:52

Second nature podcast, how I bur how I burned down my business. Like, listen to that, and you'll get an idea of what Martina's dealing with. She had big ideas, uh trying to be a millionaire, but it doesn't quite work out in the bike industry for whatever reason. Crust, I can't speak to, I don't know.

SPEAKER_02 47:09

I could I can't I don't think it's like that though.

SPEAKER_01 47:11

Don't think it's like that though, ultra dynamico.

SPEAKER_03 47:14

If it were, they wouldn't have to work anymore, and they still work very hard. And like I went after this person one day because I was at like the loodal phase, loodal phase of you've had and I was like, ooh, I feel weird this morning. I think I'm gonna have a little fight on the internet as a treat to myself and my my savage attitude right now. And I went through it. I was like, dang, this person, I don't think they'd really know what's going on in the world.

SPEAKER_01 47:43

So just didn't know just miss lots of misunderstandings. I wouldn't say like what's going on, but you can't you can't like make an account based upon inflation.

SPEAKER_03 47:53

It reads like folk Marxism, folk marks, folk Marxism. So I grew up in Marxist thought, you know, like very much in protest culture, because I'm Tibetan. And actually, as a side as a sad side note, sad note to tell them why you're mad, I'll also add Tom why you're sad. There was a Tibetan man who self-imolated last Thursday to highlight cultural genocide inside of Tibet. And he was a beloved member of the New York Tibetan community. And I have lots of feelings about it, but that happened. And I think that people need to know what's going on. This is the 168th self-immolation since 1998, inside and outside of Tibet by Tibetans. Pretty much just saying we have experienced hell and we're still going through it, and we wish that people would understand and talk about it. And growing up in movements, growing up in a culture and community that understands power like that, and has been trying to fight power for our land and country. I grew up going to like how to organize campaigns, how to build puper power from the bottom from the grassroots, how to like target decision makers so you can get your campaign goals met, how to do strategy, how to build coalitions, like all of these workshops and like real life on the ground community organizing I've done, and talking to this person for three seconds let me know that that person probably has not done a lot of like people power, mobilizations, coalition building, real work, because you cannot be that messy when you're organizing. I'm just saying, like everyone is going to be messy when they're in community because we're all human beings and we're all flawed and messy and still are loved, like holistically, regardless of it. And the thing that gets me upset about things like this is it separates, it it creates this mirage of this like folk Marxism I was telling you about, where there's like this idea of universal oppression, and it is me who's the oppressed, and then there are there's a line, and then there's someone else who not knowing like consciously that they are on the other line, you are disrupting class solidarity before you even know the facts. Like that is not class consciousness, that is class erasure, and this information is coming from AI-generated numbers that aren't. It's clear, it's clear about it. It's not rooted in reality, and because it's not rooted in reality, the visions that you have for more accessible bikes, bike culture ain't gonna happen because it has to be rooted in truth and it has to be rooted in love of people, in love of life, not like counter. I have built and have been a part of movements that are built on not liking something, and I guarantee you that the ways you build is on unity of what you're actually trying to build, not what you don't want to build.

SPEAKER_01 51:30

Yeah, but you get a lot more clicks when you go for what you don't want to build.

SPEAKER_03 51:33

Yeah. You get a lot more clicks, a lot more attention, and a lot more, what is that? Like social clout.

SPEAKER_01 51:41

Yeah, well, I I did a uh, I thought it was, I was just like back to like, where did this come from? I was like, this guy's looking at AI. And he would never, you know, someone like that would never be like, oh. We don't know if it's a guy. We don't know. Yeah, right. And so I was like, well, as somebody who does not care if somebody thinks I use AI, because I've whatever.

SPEAKER_03 52:05

I look, I was like, let's get organized, let's build real-class consciousness of solidarity. We're going.

SPEAKER_01 52:15

I had to look it up to see if that's where he was getting his information from. And so I put I tried like crust first. I was like, I was like, I asked, I asked, how much revenue does a company like Crustbikes bring in in your estimate? Take a look at their website. They have been in business for 12 years now. That was the information I gave. And and so they so chatbots estimate crustbikes like annual direct sale direct from the website sales to be like 3.5 million. And and and then their total company revenue of four to six million. Okay. So we're getting close to ten. So maybe the guess, the guess of the chatbot is five million. This is again this is the same. This is not real.

SPEAKER_02 53:01

This is not real.

SPEAKER_01 53:02

I just I'm just doing it so you don't have to. So then then I was like, okay, yeah, yeah. And and then waste the water on that. Yeah, yeah. And then I ask then I was like, oh, I thought this was funny too, because they uh, you know, analog cycles up in Pulteney Vermont, or a small company, and I know people that work there, and I know that this the chatbot also thinks that analog is worth millions.

SPEAKER_04 53:24

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 53:25

Which is really funny.

SPEAKER_04 53:26

They would love that too.

SPEAKER_01 53:27

They would love that too. Yeah, you could buy the whole town of Pultene from it for a few million dollars. And so, you know, you've got that. And then they I went into I was like, oh, what about Ron's bikes? Well, you know, unfortunately, they say that there's no way for Ron's bikes to really scale because it's only meat. They said that that if I were if I didn't take if you're people want to buy what Ronnie likes.

SPEAKER_04 53:51

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 53:52

And if Ronnie's not there, then nobody buys it. And so it can't be worth that much.

SPEAKER_04 53:56

I don't exist at all. According to the chat box.

SPEAKER_01 54:02

It's just wrong. So unfortunately, yeah, they think they think that we're only worth it.

SPEAKER_03 54:07

I will go after anyone who comes after crust because those are.

SPEAKER_01 54:10

But ultra, but ultra dynamico. This was the really funny part.

SPEAKER_03 54:13

Wait, let me finish how it's sorry.

SPEAKER_01 54:15

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 54:16

Because they're run by people I absolutely love. You know, I that that's to me, she's like a sister. And you're go you're coming after my family on information you don't know Jack shit about. Like, go fuck her.

SPEAKER_01 54:31

She wears some really nice shoes.

SPEAKER_03 54:33

She's a sharp.

SPEAKER_01 54:33

She puts off the she's got a lot, she's got luxury tastes. So maybe that's factored into this also.

SPEAKER_03 54:39

But you can draw. We're speculating. Of course.

SPEAKER_01 54:42

We're speculating. We're speculating.

SPEAKER_03 54:44

She is she's from New Jersey, like loves that aesthetic and loves that style. And I love it too, because it's a joy to see.

SPEAKER_01 54:57

So chatbots also think that Swift Industries is worth nearly nine million.

SPEAKER_02 55:01

Okay, so they definitely got that out of the way. They definitely got that one.

SPEAKER_01 55:04

So that's why you're yeah, so that's why I saw that. Yeah, but they think that ultra dynamico is worth the most out of all of them. And so ultra dynamico, we're supposed to be worth where are we in here?

SPEAKER_02 55:20

How much are we getting?

SPEAKER_01 55:22

Man, where'd it go? Ultradynamico. Ultradynamic is worth, okay, a where is it in here? Okay. Oh, eight to twelve million.

SPEAKER_02 55:33

Wow. Amazing.

SPEAKER_01 55:35

Off Ultra Dynamico last year. I've been I've moved up from only owning 35% of the company to owning 50% of the company. I made, I think, total $7,000 off Ultra Dynamico last year.

SPEAKER_03 55:51

7,000, not seven million.

SPEAKER_01 55:54

Oh yeah, that would be great.

SPEAKER_03 55:56

Three less zeros.

SPEAKER_01 55:58

You know, I hope we have a better year this year.

SPEAKER_03 56:00

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_01 56:02

I hope we have a better year this year. The delusion. That's that's that's those are the facts, folks.

SPEAKER_03 56:07

Yeah. I mean, if I could, if I could reach past my rage at this at this fracturing of like truth and like what act what is actually the numbers, because like you can fudge a bunch of things, but you can't fudge numbers. Like math always tells the truth. And so like, yeah, our math is telling our truth. But I think if I could, if I could reach across and try to do some understanding of why this person might be feeling like this, it is true. Like we are alt bikes because some of these bikes that the pros are riding, some of the the, you know, just the kits alone, it is already so expensive.

SPEAKER_01 56:52

$15,000 for a top for a top-of-the-line bike these days.

SPEAKER_03 56:54

$500 for just bibs, you know, at the $300 for a basic ass helmet.

SPEAKER_01 57:02

And apparel.

SPEAKER_03 57:03

And like $100 for gloves. Like a biblical.

SPEAKER_01 57:06

Apparel, especially like a Rafa is like Chinese. So expensive. There's a lot of markup in apparel.

SPEAKER_03 57:12

And we absolutely reject those things that are, you know, inflated because it's a brand that's slapping their label on there, but it's getting made by you know questionable labor practices abroad. We don't like that at all. Like that's why Ultra Dynamico is made in Japan with really strict regulations and high standards for living, and they're made in the US for us, because like we don't our bags are made, all made in the U.S.

SPEAKER_01 57:44

We know who makes our stuff. We know they're making we know they're making a living wage. Like our bike, our back. Yeah, our bikes are bank paying people's mortgages. Like, so I get it.

SPEAKER_03 57:55

Like there's there is there, like if you take the the misinformation out of it, there is good critique here. And I don't think that we are free of critique. And I welcome it when it's intelligible, but when it is dumb stuff that you pull, it really interrupts like it interrupts smaller businesses from actually being viable because people are spreading misinformation about it.

SPEAKER_01 58:21

Or they want stuff cheaper. Like you can't.

SPEAKER_03 58:24

If you want things cheaper, like think about where why that's cheap. Everybody knows how to talk about like there's a reason why cheap shit is cheap.

SPEAKER_01 58:34

There's a standard markup in retail. We you you want to make, you know, you you want to make back what you put in, obviously, but you'd like to make a little extra there too. And we're, you know, there's no like two or three times markup here.

SPEAKER_03 58:45

Like this is like we're not doing that. We're at 35% markups because like we won't go above that because that's ridiculous.

SPEAKER_01 58:54

And our bags are made by people who are getting a living wage that we know.

SPEAKER_03 58:57

That's why we stay like paycheck to paycheck.

SPEAKER_01 59:02

Like, if you want nice, if you want nice things and you want to make sure that the people making are being taken care of, then things and it are made in this country. Like if those are things that you're into, you gotta you gotta pay more. I'm sorry. That's just the way it goes. I don't I wish it were a different story, but that's just the way it goes.

SPEAKER_03 59:18

That's where we are right now. And if we don't like it, yes, we should be organizing, but we should be organizing with the truth on our side and not a bunch of AI generators.

SPEAKER_01 59:29

Where are my tens of millions?

SPEAKER_03 59:30

I would love that. That's why I am Aria Tens of millions.

SPEAKER_01 59:35

Tens of millions.

unknown 59:37

All right.

SPEAKER_01 59:38

Well, I guess we could wrap up that tell them while you're mad. I hope you all enjoyed that little juice. That little That juice we squeezed. Yes, the little juice that we squeezed, the lemon juice that we squeezed in our own eyes.

SPEAKER_03 59:48

And I hope you build your own class consciousness and learn how to be in solidarity with all workers all over the world. It's not that hard to do, and it'll actually save you a bunch of money.

unknown 1:00:04

Okay.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:05

Moving on to some gossip.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:08

You've got gossip.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:10

Well, I guess it's not that much about gossip, but there are several high-performing pro-women writers who are pregnant right now. Oh, okay. Which is a really fun one for me. Like, okay, so from from that to new life being developed, who the real producers are. You know, the real production in the means of production marketplace is people who make babies in their bodies. Those are the real producers in the world. And I am frankly so sick and tired of anyway. So Elise Shabby and Emma Norskord are pregnant. And it's not together. Well, they are.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:57

Well, they're both pregnant, but they're not.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:59

All right, enough with the freaking 90s jokes. Okay, Dad. What was that?

SPEAKER_01 1:01:03

No 90s jokes. I just wanted they're not a couple, they're not a couple, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:01:06

They're not a couple.

SPEAKER_01 1:01:07

All right.

SPEAKER_03 1:01:08

They're pregnant. And Sarah Sturm, also pregnant, as a gravel superstar in the US. And it's just really fun seeing high, high performing athletes like this going through pregnancy and what changes in the body, and like submitting science through what their bodies are going through and being active. It again tells me how dynamic women's cycling is and how there is so much more information to know and how that's very exciting. It's it's just a field of unknowns because you know, watching the men's race, you can kind of see uh the archetypes of like climber versus sprinter versus, you know, GC Condender versus like a monument rider. Like all of those things are kind of set in the men's field. And that's really fun because you know, like, okay, yeah, he's not gonna be able to keep up with Perry Pantra up this mountain because like he clearly is not a climber, et cetera, et cetera. And then they surprise you like Remco does when he does really well climbing. But we just don't have that stuff, the science, the the culture, these archetypes for the women yet.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:28

Are there, do you know of any like women, current women's champions who are mothers? Well it's gotta be some, but we just don't know.

SPEAKER_03 1:02:38

Yeah, that that's kind of tricky because Anamique van Blutten became pregnant right after she retired. So that seems to be the thing, but I think that's something of the past. I do think that I think Gracie Brown, there are people that have become that have been pregnant, gave birth, came back, and was high performing. I wish I could remember her name.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:01

Well, the women's peloton, the they they're able to race much longer than the men, right?

SPEAKER_03 1:03:08

Like there's older just don't really know. The race at best level has not been hasn't been tested. Yeah. We know there's not enough data, there's not enough like focused studies on it.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:19

I don't know what the men we know when men have well, when men become fathers, their racing careers like completely tag.

SPEAKER_02 1:03:29

Not really.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:30

No. Well you can't, especially if you're a sprinter, you can't have that, you can't be thinking about somebody else. Like you it's only you in that moment. And if you hesitate, then you're gonna get you're gonna turn into wow.

SPEAKER_03 1:03:43

Who won Perry Roubaix and is a beloved?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:45

Well, yeah, but uh he's beloved because he's had so much so many crashes and so many like second thoughts because he's thinking for his himself and his children now, where you've got to be uh, you know, and and you know, especially if you're a sprinter or a one-day racer, like that's a tough job. That's uh yeah. Yeah. That's uh that's like that's going to battle. So Yeah. Do we want to we forgot to forgot to mention our new contributors?

SPEAKER_03 1:04:14

Are we we're going out now?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:16

Yeah, we're we're going out now. Yeah. We forgot to mention our new contributors at the front of the episode.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:22

All of we'll we'll keep that at the end of the episode from now. Okay, so we have Andy Peacock and Charles Gasconi.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:33

Oh that's that sound that sounds like a Frenchman.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:36

Yeah, I really like that name. That's cool.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:39

So thank you for your donations.

SPEAKER_03 1:04:40

Thank you guys.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:42

Yep, yep. And thank you for the fan mail. Well, again, it's been been rolling in nicely. It's strange that I could only like if I want to actually message these the uh fan mail back. It's it allows me to only basically text message people back a little like a hundred characters at a time. Basically, I could twitter, I could tweet you back. I don't understand. But we will try and answer a lot of these questions on a future episode, maybe even next episode. Who knows? Um, so thank you for the fan mail. Keep on sending it. Thank you for the kind words and and for pushing us to get the the pro racing gossip in the beginning of the of the episode again.

SPEAKER_02 1:05:22

We're deciding that. We put our hands down, we decided because of feedback.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:32

But, you know, we are we we like other people's opinions. You know, we we welcome that all and we will take it all into consideration. But and this podcast will forever be shifting, I'm sure, too.

SPEAKER_03 1:05:44

We're not necessarily sticking to we don't have any sponsors like person, I guess Ron's and Ultra Dynamico, but that's just us. I know.

SPEAKER_01 1:05:54

We could be we could be as big, we could I mean for that much money, we could probably get Shopify. Um not Shopify, sorry, Spotify to buy us. And we could have yeah, we could be like we could be you and I could be Joe Rogan.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:06

It's so fun just like daydreaming about that. Like, bless bless that hater who was like, oh, they but because they think so highly of us. Yeah, you know, and it's like that's the way to think about it.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:18

Yeah, you know, that I guess that is flattering.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:21

I think we're tens of millions of dollars rich.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:23

If I actually if we actually were making that, I'd be proud of it. I'd be telling everybody.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:28

I would too.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:29

Yeah. I would be telling everybody with all my gold jewelry.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:34

Your toe rings.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:35

Yeah, my toe ring. The chain connecting my toe ring to my belly button ring. Yeah, you know. You know, my dreams. Yeah.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:44

So until you see a belly button ring with a chain that goes all the way to a toe ring, we have not hit a million. Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:51

Yeah. So that'll be that's what I'm gonna buy with my first million.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:56

Okay. Yeah. With some dolphin charms hanging on.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:59

Let's gonna run it right up the right up the the leg of my tiny shorts. Yeah, yeah. That's gonna be real nice.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:05

I can't wait for that day, my love.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:07

Oh, yeah, I bet you all can't wait for that day either, folks. So, yeah, keep on supporting the podcast, and ice cream will turn into toads. Well, with that, folks, I'm Ronnie Romance.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:19

Um Arya. Thanks for joining us on our tenth episode.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:22

Tenth episode Double Digits. Oh no, you're doing the sound effects.

SPEAKER_03 1:07:27

I mean, I think I'm better. Double digits.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:31

All right, bye, folks. Have a great week.