hot T of the tour de femmes

what a race with all the gossip a pro cycling fan could hope for.  We delve into the story line of the best race of the year with some of the worst commentators. afterwards remembering the most traveled person in the world, cyclist Heinz Stücke.  a little granola money update, and a little MADE build foreshadowing.  

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Okay, we're recording. Recording live from the beating heart of the country.

SPEAKER_06 0:08

People actuated and opinionated.

SPEAKER_01 0:12

It's all right now of alternative radio. Or alternative cyclists. I'm Ronnie Romance.

SPEAKER_06 0:19

I'm Maria Bongo Borgini. Or Ron's girlfriend. We'll get into that later.

SPEAKER_01 0:27

It rhymes with joining us. It rhymes with Phil Liggett.

SPEAKER_06 0:30

That's just the name. That's just straight up. Welcome to the show. So we'll be talking about headlines today. Most of it is toward a France fund of Egg Zwift.

SPEAKER_01 0:44

As far as the headlines go, we'll get into other stuff afterwards, of course. Of course.

SPEAKER_06 0:48

We have real life report backs, and we have a tell them why you're mad, with as Ron just said, Aria is mad at Phil League right now.

SPEAKER_01 0:58

I think a lot of people are.

SPEAKER_06 1:00

Yeah, but for the sake of this show, it's me.

SPEAKER_01 1:03

I'm pretty mad. We've got a such such a juicy, you know, such a juicy stage race that just wrapped up. Mm-hmm. Just squeezing the juice out of summer.

SPEAKER_06 1:16

It's fairy season, and it is the dog days of summer, and that juice is worth the squeeze, isn't it?

SPEAKER_01 1:24

Yeah, it is. Yeah, it is dripping into your hot pot of tea right now.

SPEAKER_06 1:28

Amen.

SPEAKER_01 1:29

Mm-hmm. So why don't you let us why don't you lead us off here?

SPEAKER_06 1:32

Last week we talked about how this week we were gonna know the winner of the Toyota France Benz, and guess what? We do mystery, first three. The mystery has been made. Um nine stages, grueling ta grueling nine stages with a lot of variety, right? Like there was an individual time trial. I looking at the profiles for the nine days, I didn't think too much of it, seeing only like two mountain stages, really, and then most of them being flat, and then one time trial.

SPEAKER_01 2:08

One mountain stage, right?

SPEAKER_06 2:10

One proper like the queen stage is the proper mountain stage. For sure.

SPEAKER_01 2:17

Only one real sprint stage.

SPEAKER_06 2:19

That's I mean, you could Lorena won two. So you could say those were the sprint stages for sure. Get them out early. But the variety, the jersey being on a different back pretty much every single day, with the exception of Weebs the first two days and Demi the last two days.

SPEAKER_01 2:37

It was we just gave up with the winners.

SPEAKER_06 2:39

It was it was brilliant. Yeah, Demi Voleraine won of Team FDJ Suez with a lot of um controversy and drama and video.

SPEAKER_01 2:51

All of the stuff we love about professional cycling.

SPEAKER_06 2:54

Absolutely. We didn't get it from the 21-stage race, but we did get it from the nine. The girls didn't even the girlies didn't even have a rest day, mind you. Nine stages, no rest day.

SPEAKER_03 3:07

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 3:08

And they didn't cover m all of the race.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

Yeah, the first the first lesson. There was only 150 50k weren't even broadcasted. At all. At all.

SPEAKER_04 3:17

Aren't you offended?

SPEAKER_01 3:19

Yeah, you know, a lot of the times, you know, when you when the whole race does get broadcasted, a lot of people skip through the beginning parts, but you know, it's still at this at the same time, a lot of moves are made in those beginning parts of the races. And if you don't see them, you know, or a lot of the controversy that's talked about after the race, and they're just not broadcasted, so how are we supposed to, as viewers, really get hooked into this storyline?

SPEAKER_06 3:43

I know, I know. It's not fair to a lot of the writers who are making these big moves early on because they have to to get their name, and no one even sees it. And this is the top of the profession. So I have some problems with that. I do think in time it'll get solved. We're talking about, you know, more and more generated interest for this race, more viewership every year.

SPEAKER_01 4:10

Continues to be I mean, this year's race was hands down the most exciting stage race of the year.

SPEAKER_06 4:16

One thousand percent.

SPEAKER_01 4:18

One thousand percent. Like blew the men's out of the water.

SPEAKER_06 4:20

There's no comparison.

SPEAKER_01 4:21

Yeah, that uh that could be like a hot take, like a popular opinion among people who are, you know, I don't know, not fed up or tired with Tade's dominance, but you know, there is a certain lack of surprise in the men's Peloton, whereas with the women's, there's it's a not, you know, it's a much more even playing field. And on top of that, there are real rivalries. Whereas like in the men's, they're just like I we talked about it, I guess, two podcasts ago with Jordan, how we're just like sick of this like friendly like mask that the men put on at the end of each race, where Toddy's like, oh, the um, you know, good race, everybody. Oh, deep thirty. Oh, that was really hard, huh, guys? Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 5:02

No, we want and the women's are like step aside, Bravo TV. Have we got something for you? This is Vanderpump Rules, this is Summer House, this is this is you don't know reality TV. I actually never watched it.

SPEAKER_01 5:19

I like that. Matthew Vanderpump.

SPEAKER_06 5:24

Um, it is it is delivering entertainment, and I know that as much as the press is saying, like, oh, you know, these rivalries, whatever, they're really amping it up because I know the girlies are pretty chill on the other side of the page.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

I want these rivalries to be real.

SPEAKER_06 5:40

The rivalries are definitely real, but like, you know, there's there's media hype that really helps where the media we when we're not hyping too too much, we're just reporting on other people's hype.

SPEAKER_01 5:53

It's a telephone game.

SPEAKER_06 5:55

Yeah. Hey, we're not saying it they are, okay? We didn't say it.

SPEAKER_01 6:00

Stay neutral here.

SPEAKER_06 6:02

We are Switzerland where the race started.

SPEAKER_01 6:04

Oh man.

SPEAKER_06 6:05

So yeah.

SPEAKER_01 6:06

So we've just concluded. And well, we just recorded on la on Sunday. So this is fresh. So what was the po what was the podium?

SPEAKER_06 6:15

The podium is obviously Demi. I almost said Demi Moore. Demi Moore at the top. Cassia Neui Doma Finney is second, and third was Elisa Longo Borghini.

SPEAKER_01 6:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 6:29

A favorite.

SPEAKER_01 6:31

So what someone missing from that podium.

SPEAKER_06 6:35

So I mean last year's champ. Number one jerk, number one. It's missing.

SPEAKER_01 6:40

Pauline Ferran Fervaux.

SPEAKER_06 6:43

Yeah, Phil couldn't say that name either.

SPEAKER_01 6:47

Take that. PFP, as many call her. Last year, she showed up to this race after not. I mean, correct me if I'm wrong, she didn't race the previous iteration, nor the previous, nor the previous, previous iteration. No, the the previous iteration before that previous iteration. So she came on the scene last year. Of course, she had won Olympic gold medal and what?

SPEAKER_05 7:10

Mountain biking.

SPEAKER_01 7:11

Mountain biking on the Visma squad, Visma Lisa Bike Squad. And if you recall, Jonas Vindegaard also on the Visma Lisa bike squad. If you recall, also Wout Van Art on the Visa Lisa Bikes squad.

SPEAKER_06 7:25

And if you recall Seppi almost falling off the zone. So I mean, what a disastrous.

SPEAKER_01 7:29

I mean, they of course they won the men's Giro with with Jonas. Jonas. But it has been all downhill since then. And leading into, I think they've probably thought, like, oh, well, at least maybe we'll win the women's fen because PFP was so dominant last year.

SPEAKER_02 7:46

She was.

SPEAKER_01 7:47

That, you know, it was just like, oh, well, this person had just not decided to race this race before, and now she is, and it's gonna be like a Tade Pagaccha thing scenario going on here. And I called it.

SPEAKER_06 7:58

I called it before like we even started all this. I said she's not showing the form that I saw last year. Yeah. And all the other podcasts I listened to, she was like up there as the favorite just because she's got the number one on her back.

SPEAKER_01 8:13

She was so she she like laid waste to the field last year.

SPEAKER_06 8:16

She did. I mean, yeah, yeah, in the last two stages. But like she has the number one on her back, and usually anyone who won the previous year is the favorite, but I really didn't see her head in the game. I I just didn't see it this year.

SPEAKER_01 8:33

So well, yeah, it really the day after we recorded, the day after we recorded last week was the time trial.

SPEAKER_06 8:39

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 8:40

And to me, and most people, this is where she really lost the race. She had a whack time trial setup. I mean, not that these these bikes generally look good to begin with, but she's got red S and and where and she's like pinching the what the when the riders get like too arrow and the and the hip flexors like pull the legs up too far, it like pinches the the what the heck are those that you know this is a very important blood way that goes through the legs. Anyway, she had to like raise up her whole body to be like a more mountain bike position, which doesn't work that well when you're trying to be aerodynamic. And had a much different time trial position than everyone else. And we were everyone was like, and also the camera was like zooming way in in on her when she was like trying to zone out and like get ready for it. You could tell she was nervous because she's not a time trial person.

SPEAKER_03 9:32

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:33

And she gets on there and she loses like two and a half minutes or something during that time trial, which put her like way back. And then people were like, Oh, maybe she'll make it up on Vonto in the mountain stages. Because she's super tiny. Uh, you know, there's been reports where you she's she's definitely a climber. She's a climber.

SPEAKER_06 9:51

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:52

And yeah, so maybe she's gonna make it up there. So we kind of tucked that one in and being like, wow, that was a whack, whack time trial. We'll see how she does in the mountains. Now we've had some pretty good, like in the midst of all this, like in the middle of all this, we've had some pretty good homespun reporting by some friends of ours and also a favorite in the race. You want to talk about that?

SPEAKER_06 10:15

Yeah. Taylor Finney and his pals were doing a hap HAP. I guess like stage by stage. What does hap stand for? HAP is husbands and partners, because in basketball wives they do wives and girlfriends, which is wag. So this was pretty cute. And I just I really liked seeing Taylor up there with his buddy, I forget his name. Dang, I'm so bad at the European pronunciations myself, but they were giving rankings to each stage, kind of going through like speeding through some highlights and just cheering on Kasha and other fans, I guess, facing because I was just looking at Poland friend promo stuff. But to just have to have this kind of support, to to really have the back and the gender flip of like wives and girlfriends, I just thought was really fun. And there was a lot of a lot of stuff that came out of the hap broadcasts on Instagram. I mean, Taylor Taylor could single-handedly make Instagram relevant again because of how much the Peacock broadcast was.

SPEAKER_01 11:40

Well, yeah, Phil really, Phil really follows me close on Instagram.

SPEAKER_06 11:44

I guess so, but I also think that was just part of the like the movie.

SPEAKER_01 11:49

Yeah, we'll we'll we won't skip ahead to that. But that that's the fun, that's the real fun juice out of all this. But I I just think it is cool to have this gender flip where you do have like this cool. I don't know.

SPEAKER_06 12:03

I think it's like the person doing all of the performing, all of the action is the the women and the person like behind every great woman there is a man who is doing a doing a broadcast.

SPEAKER_03 12:19

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 12:20

Behind every great woman, there is a man taking pictures of her and making content. You know, I do think that's the kind of uh world I want to see.

SPEAKER_01 12:30

Yeah, true. It's cool to tune in and see that sort of stuff because then ideally that is the world that we want to see. Yeah, you know, because you know, sequel roles.

SPEAKER_06 12:38

There's such there and and the reason why we get excited about it is because as we mentioned in the beginning, there's such a huge discrepancy in in coverage, in like safety, on in just like the budgets alone, how much everyone is getting paid, the amount of pressure that's put on it, it just the the efforts and the efforts required to do something like this just does not match the payoff. So it is nice to have more and more eyes on the femmes, more and more background support on the femmes, and like a no-holds bar, only the best people doing the reporting, doing the commentating. Like we've all got a push for this to happen, and I think a lot of people are doing it, which is really nice to see.

SPEAKER_01 13:30

We may already know why you're mad.

SPEAKER_06 13:32

Yeah, a little bit.

SPEAKER_01 13:35

So that kind of leads into the Queen stage, which was on Friday. This was the the Femme's first time up the giant of Provence, Mont Ventu.

SPEAKER_06 13:46

Mont Vantu.

SPEAKER_01 13:47

Or as I call it, just V O N two.

SPEAKER_06 13:50

The number two.

SPEAKER_01 13:53

This was the Queen stage. One of the most exciting races I can I've watched in recent memory.

SPEAKER_06 14:00

Yes, absolutely. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:05

I thought it was gonna be more of like dominance of what was the who's no, I thought it was gonna be the movie star. What's her name?

SPEAKER_06 14:13

Oh, Marlon Rooser?

SPEAKER_01 14:15

Yeah, because all of the because I just was just listening to people talking saying that Roysera had gone up Fun 2 faster than anyone else in like practice or something. Oh and so, and that she was also had won the time trial.

SPEAKER_06 14:28

Marlon is incredible on and off the bike.

SPEAKER_01 14:31

She's like she's I thought it I thought it was just I thought she was just gonna take off.

SPEAKER_06 14:35

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 14:36

And you know, as it went entirely different than than all of that, we had we had I'm gonna I'll hand it over to you. Do you have a fresh memory of the Von 2 stage?

SPEAKER_06 14:45

I have a fresh memory that will like play like a gif in my head, and that is the the when Kasha attacks, like going up, right? So Von two is well as as far as the strata segment is.

SPEAKER_01 15:02

Which is really what matters, folks.

SPEAKER_06 15:04

12.88 miles with 5,149 feet of climbing.

SPEAKER_01 15:09

Average gradient of 8.3.

SPEAKER_06 15:11

It is a juggernaut for sure. And you can see where it ends, it literally looks like they're going to the moon. Like it is this incredible landscape.

SPEAKER_01 15:23

The announcers always say that no trees can grow up here, but it was like I've heard report re I think it was clear cut ages ago, and just nothing ever came back.

SPEAKER_03 15:33

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 15:33

It was yeah, male pattern baldness of a mountain.

SPEAKER_03 15:37

That's good. That's good.

SPEAKER_01 15:38

Yeah. So, but you know, it's uh in tour lore, this is this is one of the, you know, one of the most storied mountaintop finishes. And so it was really cool to s have the femmes do this above category climb. The only above category climb of the entire race. So a lot was this is really where the race would start, was what many people were saying.

SPEAKER_06 16:00

This is where the race would get defined.

SPEAKER_01 16:01

Defined. And and while it didn't get defined here, it did provide for one of the most exciting stages.

SPEAKER_06 16:10

The best emotional stages. So my the the memory that stays in my mind are the the virtu the top three positions that were held by at the time, the yellow jersey was on Marlon's back, and then it was Demi, and then it was Kasha. Marlon and Demi had, I think, like 12 seconds between them, so they're the real competitors. Kasha was behind a minute 15 behind the yellow jersey. So when Kasha attacks, Demi and Marlin are both kind of just looking at each other because they think that they're the only like real competitors here, and Demi is like kind of goes looks back to check on Kasha one direction, and she's already attacked and she's going the other way.

SPEAKER_01 17:02

We should I should also note that this I just remember the stage prior on one of the more roller or punchy stages, Kasha attacked and was pulled back by Volering and Voling on the stage. Yes. So I think already Voling was like, I don't need to worry about that.

SPEAKER_06 17:17

Maybe. Maybe her and Marlin were both thinking that, or that you know, she's not gonna get above a minute 15 on on Marlin.

SPEAKER_01 17:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 17:28

And Kasha does.

SPEAKER_01 17:30

I also don't think Demi respects Kasha.

SPEAKER_06 17:33

It's clear.

SPEAKER_01 17:34

It's it's very clear.

SPEAKER_06 17:35

It's very clear that she doesn't.

SPEAKER_01 17:36

And you know, when Kasha won the the tour two years ago, it was there was a crash, I don't know, the final or the day before the final stage. It was the day before the final stage. And she crash she crashed and Kasha took the lead, and then the next day Demi tried to get it back on which which mountain did they climb that year? I forgot. Not volunteer. Alp to Ez. They did Alp Twes.

SPEAKER_05 18:03

Was it? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:04

And Demi came back and crushed Kasha on Alp Toez and almost took the lead back. But it was evident that to her, in her mind, that Kasha only won because she crashed the day before. No one waited for her, and you know, there's a I think a lot of emotions stirred right then and there, and that's what cemented this rivalry. So that that that on this stage in particular, Demi was like, eh, we'll get her.

SPEAKER_06 18:30

Yeah, maybe. I don't know what's going on in that lady's mind, but I know it is not filled with love and flowers and roses for our girl Kasha because when she won, when she won, there was like Kasha described it as like on in one of the interviews as a funeral vibe because Demi didn't win. She was like being such a sour puser about it because Kasha won by four seconds, because no, she didn't like in 2024. She didn't own, like, she didn't get completely dropped. Kasha fought her way to that win. If if Demi is the best cyclist, like as people were saying in the comments two years ago, she would have been four seconds faster.

SPEAKER_01 19:15

She wouldn't have crashed.

SPEAKER_06 19:16

Well, no, crashing is normal. Kasha crashed a lot during that year, too. And no one said a damn thing. I just think that like, and especially this year, because Demi's riding for a French team, she's obviously the favorite, and there's like a lot of yeah.

SPEAKER_01 19:32

Well, you know, we're just trying to put our put ourselves in Demi's head when when Kasha. Well, when Kasha started riding away from her, sounds like a dark place. I'm just saying it does not. When Kasha rode away from her on Vontu, it was they almost brought it back. So it was she's she attacked with like 12k to go or something.

SPEAKER_06 19:57

Just like pretty much at the bottom of the climb. They had just started climbing, and it was it was kind of just Demi and Marlon looking at each other like, are you gonna pull? Like Marlon's not gonna pull because she doesn't need to. She's already in the yellow, she's not going to try to get closer to Kasha because it's but she was still pulling, like they were still taking turns.

SPEAKER_01 20:22

Taking turns and they came out. Demi was still flicking her elbow and there were a number of there were a number of attacks between the two of them. And so eventually they wore each other down.

SPEAKER_06 20:30

They did. They should know how each other were because they used to be teammates.

SPEAKER_01 20:33

And they got they got within like seven or eight seconds of like did you know that?

SPEAKER_06 20:39

Did you know that Marlon and Demi used to be teammates? No, I didn't. Yeah. Sour grapes there too. Guess who the common denominator is?

SPEAKER_01 20:46

Like so they got within like seven, eight seconds of Kasha, and I was like, Well, that's it. And then all of a sudden, Kasha had like a minute on. Like I looked down for a moment to maybe eat some granola, and then and then Kasha. Yeah, I got a got a batch cooling on the cooling rack right now. But so so she gets a so Kasha starts riding away again, and all of a sudden we're seeing that lead build and build and build to the point where we're just like, holy shit, Kasha's gonna win this race.

SPEAKER_06 21:19

That's when I started crying.

SPEAKER_01 21:21

Yes. And in my mind, I was like thinking of the stage afterwards, which was supposed to be more of like a sprint stage-ish, and then the stage afterwards in Nice, where she would just have to defend it.

SPEAKER_06 21:31

And so I'm like, well strong teammates, Antonia Niedemeyer. Shout out to Antonia, who took the white jersey as the best young rider jersey, who's a teammate of Kasha's. She was there the whole time. Also, Zoe Backstead who did that enormous pull for her on the last day. Like it was gorgeous to see her teammate really step it up because she's got really strong teammates.

SPEAKER_01 21:54

That's a great team. So, you know, we uh we were we were teary eyed at the finish, being like Kasha's won this. Tour.

SPEAKER_06 22:00

She's won this tour. I mean, I I didn't think she had won the tour, actually, but I was in the moment of seeing this person who is climbing up this mountain with a headwind and freaking hammering it so hard, she's pulling the gap, like she is gapping the yellow jersey and her fiercest rival by over a minute. And not only does she win the stage beautifully, like obvious winner, because the Demi, Demi and Marlon did not have it. Like they were trying to bridge up to her. They could not do it, they did not have it in them.

SPEAKER_01 22:42

Or in retrospect, sorry, go ahead. You were finishing.

SPEAKER_06 22:47

The stage, the queen stage, the hardest thing. The thing that everyone has been talking about this whole time is the defining, you know, champion moment of this entire Tour de France Femmes of Ig Zwift. And then she also takes the yellow jersey. And she's crying on the podium when the yellow jersey gets on.

SPEAKER_01 23:09

It's her first tour stage win ever.

SPEAKER_06 23:11

Correct. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:12

She's won the yellow jersey, but not won a tour stage. Right. So this was a real, this is real proof of proof of the pudding recipe here.

SPEAKER_06 23:20

Of course it is. And then not only does she win and get us all emotional, all of us Kasha fans were just crying, crying, crying like we needed a baby bottle or something. And her interviews right afterwards were also so, so sweet and brilliant. And it I was like, this is the alt-bike weed. They were so all bike.

SPEAKER_01 23:43

It was all about loving the bike ride, like look like having so much fun on the bike.

SPEAKER_06 23:48

Like riding with your friends and competing with your friends for play, like to go up mountains.

SPEAKER_01 23:53

Talking about how her and Taylor and some other friends went and did Fantu three times.

SPEAKER_06 23:58

People on the Hap Pod. Yeah, I keep saying podcast.

SPEAKER_01 24:03

Just like having fun racing their bikes around.

SPEAKER_06 24:05

Yeah, and just like getting that feeling back of playing with your friends and competing with them up. Like that's how she did it.

SPEAKER_01 24:12

We all know how that feels.

SPEAKER_06 24:13

And that's that's beautiful. We can all relate to that.

SPEAKER_01 24:16

We can't relate to the efforts that she puts in, obviously, but we can relate to why she does it.

SPEAKER_06 24:21

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 24:21

Which is really cool.

SPEAKER_06 24:22

A pure love for riding.

SPEAKER_01 24:24

I don't hear any of the men talk like that.

SPEAKER_06 24:26

A pure and no one else talks like that. Not a single one who is interviewed talks in this way that's real and connecting and humble and like uplifts her entire team and uplifts her friends and family. And I find it was beautiful.

SPEAKER_01 24:44

Most importantly, I find it uplifting to the sport of cycling.

SPEAKER_06 24:47

The sport of cycling, absolutely. Say more.

SPEAKER_01 24:50

Which is which is in dire need of something all the time. But you know, it I think again, all of us being able to connect to why we ride bikes, why it feels so good, and why we continue to do it day in and day out, why it becomes our lifestyle and not just something that we do for fitness or something like that.

SPEAKER_06 25:11

Yeah, it's not like she was shouting out her sponsors or like doing sponsor correct behavior. She was just like, I love where the bike can take me. You can do so much and go so many places on the bike. I freaking love it.

SPEAKER_01 25:25

Sing it in the Polish accent.

SPEAKER_06 25:27

And like with the interviewers, too, she was like so engaged, even though she has just like put in this enormous effort. People were saying that that stage was the best cycling performance ever. You know, the amount of wattage that she put in for the amount of time that she did it for 55 minutes at like crazy.

SPEAKER_01 25:51

I didn't know about the physiological stuff. Yeah, that's all John Weeks was talking about because now he follows the that data. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 25:58

He was like, that was the single greatest performance by a cyclist, like ever.

SPEAKER_01 26:04

So, you know, that being said, when we roll into the next stage, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 26:10

I could go on about the stage, it was so gorgeous.

SPEAKER_01 26:13

Turns out she's a little tired.

SPEAKER_06 26:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 26:15

And Demi.

SPEAKER_06 26:16

Which you would expect.

SPEAKER_01 26:17

Demi in my mind, I was like, oh, so you know, Demi, I may maybe I'm giving her more credit than uh I know I could see your face anytime I mentioned Demi. But I think that's a safe space, yeah. When she let Kasha go on Von Tu, I think that she was already thinking about these last two stages and about how she would have the upper hand. Kasha, obviously a better climber than Demi. She Demi dwarfs Kasha in size. And Demi has, you know, she's a punchy, she's a better she could climb, but she's also a better roller than than Kasha. Not saying that Kasha doesn't have a punch tour, but Demi, when she's a little bit fresher, that's a powerful rider. And these last two stages were all power climbs. And so in my mind, I'm like, well, maybe Demi, maybe this played into Demi's plan perfectly. And maybe part of Demi's plan, this is the real controversial part, is when she attacks on the stage on Saturday, she attacks with her 20-year-old teammate, Jerry.

SPEAKER_06 27:21

Celia Gierry, French rider.

SPEAKER_01 27:24

And as they're coming into the spot where the real attack is happening, they go into a 90-degree corner, and Volering, Demi Volering is in the front, and followed by Jerry, and then you have Kasha and Jerry took a wide berth in that corner. And it's kind of like it was kind of like a gray area. There weren't cameras. This didn't happen like the telecast.

SPEAKER_06 27:50

No, the sports director of FDJ said that was the plan.

SPEAKER_01 27:54

Like it's okay. I'm just saying, I'm just, yeah, I'm just saying what I've seen.

SPEAKER_06 27:58

This is a space space.

SPEAKER_01 28:01

And Gary, Jerry, with that wide berth, kind of pinned Kasha against the barriers and gave Demi, you know, that split second that she may or may not have needed to accelerate away and make it impossible for Kasha to claw back up to her. This is what happened. And Demi goes on to win that stage.

SPEAKER_02 28:22

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 28:23

And Kasha loses the yellow jersey.

SPEAKER_02 28:27

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 28:28

Sorry, the yellow jersey.

SPEAKER_06 28:30

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 28:30

What do you you you're saying that the team directors?

SPEAKER_06 28:33

They confirmed that that was part of the tactics. Well, not pinning cut. They would never say, yeah, we wanted to pin cut, like that's illegal.

SPEAKER_01 28:44

So uh or was it illegal?

SPEAKER_06 28:47

You can't do that.

SPEAKER_01 28:48

Well, because there was a lot of talk about this isn't an even ill and isn't even an illegal move.

SPEAKER_06 28:53

It's not an illegal move. But if you were saying the plan is to pin Kasha, that is illegal. That's what I'm saying. Okay, I got it. He didn't say we are fully doing this illegal move. He said that part of the tactics was to slow Kasha down.

SPEAKER_03 29:08

Right, right.

SPEAKER_06 29:09

That was Jury's job. And what Jury was doing was leading Demi out, and then her job was done. And usually when that happens, they kind of go, yeah, they kind of go to the other side of where riders are riding. I guess you're anytime.

SPEAKER_01 29:25

You don't do that in a corner.

SPEAKER_06 29:26

Anytime. You don't do that in the corner, and you certainly do not do it in the way that she did it. Kasha is saying that Jerry cut her off and slowed down so Demi could get away. And that is exactly what I saw in That is what happened. That is what happened. That is what happened.

SPEAKER_01 29:45

Regardless of the intention, that is what happened.

SPEAKER_06 29:48

It is, it is. And I mean, I don't, I don't like intentions matter often, but intentions don't matter to me in this situation because that was kind of a dangerous move. And I don't like seeing added danger like that. But Celia Jury is also only 20 years old. This is also her very first Tour de France Femmes. This is also somebody who rides cyclocross mostly. So those things are normal. What I don't like about this issue, this drama that was brought up by this incident is that one people are being really mean to Celia Jeriff.

SPEAKER_01 30:39

So we have we're we Demi wins the stage, Kasha comes up to Jerry after the stage and is emphatically, why did you you know why did you do this? Why did you do this to me? Why did you pin me against the barriers? There is that a strategy? And so it's already drama going on at the finish line.

SPEAKER_06 30:57

Volering is is that came out.

SPEAKER_01 31:02

And so and so, you know, the headlines, if you check any of the the cycling websites that night, was all all up in arms about what's going on here. Like did you know who's whose fault is that? What's the you know, how do we report on this? And so that's when Taylor Finney, friend of the pod, comes in. I was gonna I was gonna have you, I was, I was cueing you here. Taylor Finney on the pod has some stories on Instagram, I guess. Is that how this goes? Yes, he has our Instagram correspondent.

SPEAKER_06 31:34

Girl, let me finish. He had a story that showed another angle where you could very clearly see what happened. That was a self-celia took a really long turn, like a really wide turn, and completely like blocked off Kasha. Like, you are well aware of where the yellow jersey is. Everyone is aware of where the yellow jersey is. It's bright yellow. It's bright yellow. Her bike is bright yellow. She's wearing bright yellow. Like, you know where she is. This was done on purpose. Taylor was saying, is this move illegal? Like, probably it just screams of like foul play. It's childish behavior that you would see at juniors' races, you would see it not at this level.

SPEAKER_01 32:16

You would see it in like a in crit racing and stuff called way more contact. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_06 32:21

Crit racing is the anyway.

SPEAKER_01 32:24

Is where it is where all toxic race moves come from.

SPEAKER_06 32:27

And that's where it should stay. You know, it's fun for that reason, but not here, not at world-class world class riders. It is too dangerous. These athletes already are putting themselves on such a razor thins edge of the it could be perceived as a dirty move. It's definitely a dirty move. Now and Kasha said she lost all respect for FDJ.

SPEAKER_01 32:53

Yeah, so yeah.

SPEAKER_06 32:54

That night Kasha was going back and forth with this is this is something that happens to women who speak out and out about stuff that granted, she is super tired at the end of that ride. She's just one on two the day before, and the cameras are in your face right at the end, saying, How did you feel? And she's pissed. Yeah. Because she's like, damn, like I lost the yellow jersey, and you guys fucking cut me off and slowed me down. Like, what the hell? Um, and those things really matter. You know that there are moments where you lose contact and then it's like done. You know, you just fall back. It's just, it's just something that happens.

SPEAKER_01 33:33

It's so childish, quote unquote.

SPEAKER_06 33:36

And a lot of people have a completely different take than us, by the way. People are most people are like, yeah, Kasha needs to just get over it. That's just something that happens in cycling. And there's a part of me that's like, okay. But there's also, I want like, I want someone who's a real feminist scholar to write about what happens to women who show anger, who show any kind of discontent, how they get bashed down to be like, you're supposed to be like quiet and elegant and just do the thing and don't say anything about it.

SPEAKER_01 34:11

Do you think that's what was going on here?

SPEAKER_06 34:12

I excuse you, you like we live in this world. That is literally what happens to women. Well, media is so much more critical and harsher on women than they are on men. They really are. But we love this. We love this, and it's great, and this is my take on it. Okay. It has nothing to do with love or whatever. Well, I'm not sure. This is someone who doesn't really speak out that much, and here she is just being like, this is what happened. This was my experience, and the whole world is like, well, you can't say that because now Celia is getting cyberbullied, and it's all your fault. It's like, oh, did Kasha like ask the world to cyberbully her? No, she was just saying, This is what happened to me in the race, and you should be like, you need to at least tell me what happened from a like transformational justice lens. This is conflict, and conflict is really good because conflict tells you where the competencies are in the culture. Conflict is a really good thing, and a conflict is really good when you go head to head with it and actually interact with the conflict. And that's what Kasha was doing by going up to her and saying, Was that intentional? Anytime someone gets harmed in any situation, the person who is harmed always just wants to know, why did that happen to me? And that's what she was doing. This is the first principle of transformational justice. And she's saying, Why did that happen to me? And went up to silence, to completely like no one saying anything. She got smiled at, and the girl just turned around, completely blocked. That's where just that that's where conflict like boils over. Yeah, so Jury doesn't say anything. She's young, you know, she's inexperienced with this level of media attention, especially after a really spirited effort like that. And you know, I feel for her. There's a yellow jersey coming up to you in a confrontational way, and you're like, I'm French, like shouldn't I don't know. I don't know how the French handle conflict. I'm sure obviously not very well. But the fact that a woman at this level has, you know, disappointments that she actually puts out there in the world is subject to a lot of vitriol against Kasha as well. I'm not saying it's okay for people to be saying mean shit about jury, but it's also not okay to from your couch be like, oh, like this is this is from Kasha, queen one day and a sore loser the next day. Like, that's not freaking cool either. You are sitting down, you are not doing these kinds of efforts ever, back to back to back.

SPEAKER_01 37:02

And show us your Zwift files.

SPEAKER_06 37:05

Show us show us the numbers. You don't have it. I know you don't. So just let's just not be so harsh on women. I'm not like engage in all of the drama. This is so fun for us to have this level of rivalry and competitorship. It is really cool and it's really good for the sport, like Ronnie said. But I am a little bit weary of how outspoken women get treated in this world. It obviously connects to a lot of other issues, but we'll get to the we'll get to that some other time, I guess.

SPEAKER_01 37:46

So that that night, of course, the cyberbullying of Gieri, and the next morning at the start, Vol Demi Vollering says, referring to the 2024 tour that Kasha won, apparently, as as Demi sees it because of her crash. I didn't forget what she did when I was on the ground. Referring to Kasha riding away and winning the tour. So, you know, obviously it wasn't patched up just yet there, although they did pose for a few photos and things like that.

SPEAKER_06 38:17

And Kasha did go up to the director and of FDJ Suez and said, I did not mean for that to go that way for Jury. Like obviously, there is, I guarantee you, there is not a single women's ath athlete racing in this who would want death threats upon another rider in the group.

SPEAKER_01 38:40

Like once she was getting death threats.

SPEAKER_06 38:42

She was Jury was getting death threats, apparently. Yeah. Yeah. Which is like very common internet like experience for women. Like, so it's just oh, and and anyone, you know, people will say like free Palestine and they get death threats, you know, like whatever it is. It just happens, it's just the nature of this shitty fucked up world we live in where everyone can comment all the time, and I'm reading the comments all the time. Because apparently I think that's where democracy lives. But yeah, no one, no one wants to put another writer through this. And I know for a fact, one trillion percent that Kasha never wanted Jury to have to go through what she did. All she was doing was expressing her experience and it got blown up like that.

SPEAKER_01 39:34

Yeah, fair enough. Um yeah, that's I mean, yeah, unfortunately, that's what happens with the news and media, especially with a story like that. They've gotta blow it up because we're all clicking on it, aren't we?

SPEAKER_06 39:46

And it's good.

SPEAKER_01 39:47

It's good. So this leads us into the the so Kasha loses yellow that night. The next day, the final stage, which is a circuit race in Nice. Or is it pronounced nice?

SPEAKER_05 40:02

Nice, nice to nice.

SPEAKER_01 40:04

And this one, they had a it was a cat two climb that they went over four times. Actually, I think it was categorized one, the last lap, because they took the riders up a steeper, more direct route up that same climb.

SPEAKER_02 40:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 40:18

So a pretty uh punchy stage. And Kasha was gonna have to attack at the fourth lap, the bell lap, when that cat two became a cat one to make it a little bit harder, as she is the better climber of the two. So we were all waiting, waiting with baited breath as the as Demi and Kasha came around that. Well, I guess it was Backstead, Zoe Backstead was just putting in a big pull for Kasha at the bottom of that climb. And then we see Kasha and Demi, and we're like, When's when's Kasha gonna attack? You know, Demi's definitely expecting it. When's it gonna happen? And if I recall, Kasha put did put in a little dig, but then Demi just completely overpowered her and rode away. And it was a great victory for Demi, I'm sure. That was her third stage win of the tour. And she clinches the yellow jersey by a minute 15 or so, something like that. Over over Kasha, and then we have Kasha does catch up to Longa Borg Kasha and Longa Borghini, I think, cross the line, kind of close to one another. And uh that's the end. That's the end of the Tour de France Femmes.

SPEAKER_06 41:27

Yep.

SPEAKER_01 41:28

Evic Swift.

SPEAKER_06 41:29

Yeah, the podium was felt a little bit awkward, but you know, Kasha is a world-class champ. She was just up there smiling. It did not look like she was at a funeral when someone else is on the top of the podium. True, true. So, but like hats off to Demi. She really is a strong writer and great one, great teammate, I guess, to FDJ, but she does read to me like walking advertisement.

SPEAKER_01 41:57

Yeah. She was immediately across the line. She was like, uh, I was thinking of my team and then specialized. I was I was wondering what Mike Siniard was doing at this very moment. Not really. But you know, I I think that they had like they they handed her a new yellow bike at the line. I w I'm guessing that the paint hadn't cured yet at the beginning of the stage for her to ride it. But the uh that was the bike she was talking about. So they immediately hand her a yellow bike as she crosses the line. She's just holding it up and touting the virtues of specialized. So, yeah, that's the that closes the this this year's chapter of the of the Tour de France Femmes. I don't know what we're, you know, it was only nine stages, but it felt like it felt like it occupied as much of my headspace as the as the 21 stage and July men's race that we had prior to this.

SPEAKER_06 42:49

Definitely more memorable.

SPEAKER_01 42:50

And now we're like walking through this and I'm like, what do we do at night?

SPEAKER_06 42:53

What do we do?

SPEAKER_01 42:54

What do we uh we I we we general our protocol is we make dinner and then we eat it in front of the tour and I fall asleep right before the stage ends.

SPEAKER_06 43:03

I should be like, Janna, come on, bring up. It's the final case.

SPEAKER_01 43:07

So yeah, last night I think we started, we we were like, what do we do? Yep. And so, you know, it's uh until the Vuelta, which starts on the 15th. It really does feel like the end of summer now. It really feels like it. Like we just like, holy cow, when this all started, July 4th was when the men's Tour de France started. And it's it it seems that was it. We had we had the whole summer in front of us now. And where are we? Now it's August 11th or whatever, and dang, dang a lane. It's just it's it's falling from our grasps, is it not?

SPEAKER_06 43:45

The men's Volta starts on the 22nd of August.

SPEAKER_01 43:48

We gotta wait that long. Well, you know, really when the Velta starts, it's real. Summer's is nearly actually over.

SPEAKER_06 43:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 43:56

So wow. Gonna close that book on on the

SPEAKER_00 44:03

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SPEAKER_01 44:52

All right, pivoting to one last news bit for headlines and hot goss. Now that we're 45 minutes in, we've got the passing of perhaps the most traveled person in world history. Heinz Stuck. A German. He started touring the world in the 60s on his around the doing around the world trip and on a bike that weighed 50 pounds unloaded, just three speeds, and he continued riding this bike until he must have gotten a new one at some point. But the the photos make it look like he had the same bike, seemingly, his entire career. And this guy just I I think of like a parallel. Well, I would have to imagine that Ryan Wilson, the contributor to the Radivist, is heavily influenced by this fellow also. But I could recall in in my early years of touring when I had a much like bright-eyed and bushy-tailed view of bike travel and just being like, oh, I'm going to do this forever. I was like looking to this guy, being like, wow, I guess you you could do it forever. This guy's still doing it into his 80s. And on a three-speed 50-pound bike unloaded, I mean, the this bike loaded would probably weigh a hundred plus pounds.

SPEAKER_06 46:10

So that's what it looked like. Yeah. So I guess you need all of that stuff too.

SPEAKER_01 46:15

If you're if you're yeah, there's a great remembering touring legend, Heinz Stook on the Escape Collective, right now.

SPEAKER_03 46:22

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 46:22

And just going through his photos, here he is at age. Look at his his gear. His gear is still just like like canvas duffel bags strapped to his front rack. And and he has you know detailed maps. You think now, like whenever we're doing any of these, the world is not unknown right now. I mean, it's you can go on Google Maps and get a street view. Like when you were visiting your the little village in India where you were born. That was I was able to like look at all the different roads in that area to and like send you a route when you were visiting. And it was like, and you know, when Heinz Stook started doing this, there was like National Geographic, maybe like what else I don't know. You had no road your roadmaps were all paper, of course. Now we have all those maps like on our phones.

SPEAKER_06 47:11

Technology is a lot of things. Technology has changed a lot.

SPEAKER_01 47:13

So it was like a big deal. Like the stuff that he saw too. You think like most of these main highways that he was riding through all these countries were unpaved at the time. Villages that are now villages that were just little villages are now cities. You know, like he saw things that none of us will ever see again. And I just find that completely and utterly romantic. Not that it would be anything that I would really want to do because of the logistics of it, and you have to be really into world cuisine, which, you know, I like my granola.

SPEAKER_06 47:44

You barely like the cuisine here.

SPEAKER_01 47:45

Yeah, I would barely like the cuisine here. And so it's a uh, you know, it's it's it's a hard life, and he sustained it by doing exactly what us modern day influencers do, just by taking pictures and showing having slideshows and writing articles for magazines. And he was able to stay out pretty much his entire life by just doing that. So cheers to Hein Stuck, whatever beer you're drinking. It's German. 86 years old. What a life.

SPEAKER_06 48:14

What a life. Full, beautiful life.

SPEAKER_01 48:16

Full beautiful life. So look him up, get some photos of him. This guy, you've definitely seen him on your on some, you know, if you're a bike tourist, you've been recommended a photo of him once or twice or ten times by the algorithm. So go ahead, jump the algorithm, and just type him in. Check him out. Heinstuck.

SPEAKER_06 48:36

He looks like the old man from up the movie. The old man ties a bunch of balloons to his house. That brings us to real life report barks. Can you do that again?

SPEAKER_01 48:53

Real life report barks.

SPEAKER_06 48:56

Alright.

SPEAKER_01 48:58

All right. Well, you want to break the news?

SPEAKER_06 49:02

We have ducks.

SPEAKER_01 49:03

Yes, we are with childs. We are with two children.

SPEAKER_06 49:07

I don't know if we brought it up last week, but Ronnie and I this whole week have been obsessively watching the two ducks that we have. My brother, older brother, got eggs, duck eggs from one of his coworkers, thinking like, I don't know if they're even viable. And they hatched exactly on time. And now we have two black Swedish ducks.

SPEAKER_01 49:32

Bundles of joy.

SPEAKER_06 49:33

Absolutely adorable.

SPEAKER_01 49:35

They were born on my birthday.

SPEAKER_06 49:36

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:37

We named them after rappers.

SPEAKER_06 49:39

Yep. Lil John, little Wayne.

SPEAKER_01 49:40

And we don't know what their sex is until eight weeks in, I suppose.

SPEAKER_06 49:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:44

But these little these they grow like at an accelerated rate because they were meat ducks.

SPEAKER_06 49:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 49:51

Of course, not using them for that.

SPEAKER_06 49:52

But it's uh No, they're just gonna be pits.

SPEAKER_01 49:55

So uh yeah, we didn't didn't know that we were didn't know that we were gonna have them, and now we have them two weeks in. They are bundles of joy. I can't, I don't think that there's been one sour moment. They're just so, so cute.

SPEAKER_06 50:08

They just like snuggle with each other because ducks are really social creatures. I've learned a lot about ducks.

SPEAKER_01 50:15

How would you eat why would you have chickens when you can have ducks?

SPEAKER_06 50:18

I mean, people like different things. It's okay. We prefer ducks, obviously.

SPEAKER_01 50:23

Why would you have dogs when you can have ducks?

SPEAKER_02 50:25

I know.

SPEAKER_01 50:25

I know cats, I get it. They take care of the rodents inside the house. But yeah, these uh anyway. There's so much. So we just thought we just thought everyone should know that we have ducks.

SPEAKER_03 50:34

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:35

Now I know what you are all waiting for. Okay. I know that all of you have been waiting with bated breath for more information on my granola money.

SPEAKER_06 50:46

Oh my god. I was I thought you were gonna be like, oh, you probably know what the ducks sound like.

SPEAKER_01 50:52

Like, okay. Yeah, yeah, yeah. While I talk about granola, Aria's gonna try to get some some quotables out of the ducks. But uh I have been working hard here, perfecting my recipe. Okay. If you didn't tune into last week, uh while I was in Vermont, I had an epiphany that I was gonna get rich off granola. Well, it hasn't really, you know, I'm not like expecting to get rich. There's a little bit of joke there, of course, folks.

SPEAKER_06 51:19

But it's very much a joke.

SPEAKER_01 51:24

But I would love to offer some granola on our website and in local shops around here just because I think it's funny. And I make it ever almost every day because I feel like now that I am making it with a recipe, yeah. Before I would just throw things in a pot and mix things together and bake them. Now I've I'm really working on my recipe, okay? And I do eat a lot of this stuff. I mean, each batch goes in like a day and a half. So I'm like I'm like six batches in of dialing it in right now. And I want live on air here, folks. Okay, I am going to present a bowl of my award-winning granola.

SPEAKER_05 52:02

Oh my goodness. So here we go.

SPEAKER_01 52:05

I'm getting up. He's getting up. Why don't you tell everyone about what it looks like? Can you describe this?

SPEAKER_06 52:10

The granola or the ducks?

SPEAKER_01 52:12

Okay, well, you know.

SPEAKER_06 52:14

I'll do the I'll do the granola. Okay. It's got okay, here's the bowl.

SPEAKER_01 52:20

I need you need cold.

SPEAKER_06 52:21

There's there's my favorite almond silvers. There's raisins, coconut shavings.

SPEAKER_01 52:33

Okay, here we go. Let's see if we can get some audio on this oat milk being poured. Oh yeah. Okay. Okay. Stir that in.

SPEAKER_05 52:43

All right, calm down.

SPEAKER_01 52:44

Well, I'm not using Connecticut maple syrup yet. What do you think? You're not a tough customer though, with a granola.

SPEAKER_02 53:02

But okay.

SPEAKER_01 53:03

All right. Well, how what do you I mean give it to me straight. I want to hear give it, don't, you know, don't pat it. So we're we're weak into prototypes here.

SPEAKER_05 53:21

Wow.

SPEAKER_01 53:22

Okay.

SPEAKER_06 53:23

I don't normally eat granola. I think it's like I'm sorry to say, but I've always thought it was like white people food.

SPEAKER_01 53:30

It is.

SPEAKER_06 53:32

But I would eat this as cereal every morning.

SPEAKER_01 53:36

You would?

SPEAKER_06 53:36

Yeah, I would. It's quick and easy on hot days like this.

SPEAKER_01 53:40

So easy.

SPEAKER_06 53:41

It's really nutritious. I know that this keeps you regular fiber-wise. And it's got the perfect amount of sweetness.

SPEAKER_01 53:48

Yeah, not too sweet. I don't do I don't go too sweet, folks. You know, we don't want to be eating a bunch of sugar first thing in the morning.

SPEAKER_02 53:54

Yeah, you got Captain Crunch for that one.

SPEAKER_01 53:56

Yeah, eat your Captain Crunch.

SPEAKER_02 53:59

This is really good.

SPEAKER_01 54:00

All right. Well 10 out of 10. Yeah, this this is so this this granola is, I mean, the the primary ingredients are, of course, sprouted oats, almond slivers, coconut flakes. I got some raisins, you know, olive oil, salt, and maple syrup.

SPEAKER_06 54:17

The thing that I usually don't like about granola, I'd like the hard clusters. You don't have any of that in your colour.

SPEAKER_01 54:24

Some people really like the clusters. I'm not sure. I'm not, I stir it enough that it doesn't get the clusters because I'm I'm looking for a more how bike now, not with granola. Anyway, you know, this it's gonna have to be like 12-ounce bag is gonna be 15 bucks or so, just like all the premium granolas are. But I I think it's gonna be a fun thing now. You know, I was also I was thinking about instead of raisins doing, you know, they they sell Connecticut currants. I can get currants instead of so I could have Connecticut maple syrup, Connecticut currants. Okay, I'm also putting in a little cinnamon and nutmeg. You gotta have the nutmeg for the nutmeg steak. So these the oats come from Canada.

SPEAKER_02 55:08

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_01 55:10

Well, you know, I don't know. They're sprouted, folks.

SPEAKER_06 55:14

Anyway, maybe we'll maybe we'll have a few bags for people to try out nutmeg nor easter.

SPEAKER_01 55:20

Oh, that'll be fun next year. Yeah, maybe I'll just make a big batch. Uh and uh and and and have some people sample it.

SPEAKER_02 55:27

Oh great. That's really good.

SPEAKER_01 55:29

Okay, so uh we've got ducks, we've got granola, and we are planning for the nutmeg nor'easter right now, which is our big event, folks. That's our big event, the 10th edition. And it is coming up the last weekend of October. Is that October 24th?

SPEAKER_06 55:46

23rd to the 25th.

SPEAKER_01 55:47

23rd to the 25th.

SPEAKER_06 55:49

Oh, I just whistled there.

SPEAKER_01 55:50

Is it the second of the last weekend? Oh, either way, okay. So get that. 23rd through 25th. There is some preliminary information up on our website, ronsbikes.com. Look, yeah, okay. And we are in our preliminary planning, preliminary preliminary planning, pulmonary planning.

SPEAKER_06 56:11

It will include food this year, so the tickets are going to reflect. Yeah, we're gonna and we're not gonna do day of riderships. Sorry, you're either in or you're out.

SPEAKER_01 56:22

Our registration has been like has been like early aughts pricing, honestly. So $100 for three days is what it's used to be without food. We had we I think a number of years ago when we were at Justice Farm, she charged a lot. And I think it was like $150 those years.

SPEAKER_06 56:42

No. No, it wasn't because sh you had to buy camping tickets from her.

SPEAKER_01 56:46

Right. So I'm saying, but if you bought the camp tickets from her, everything together, the package deal was like 150.

SPEAKER_06 56:52

But we didn't collect that. She did. She did. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 56:55

So anyway, so I'm saying is it's not it's gonna be like 150 to 175 dollars this year. And we're not doing it. It's gonna be a it's gonna be more than 100.

SPEAKER_06 57:04

It's gonna be at like 180.

SPEAKER_01 57:06

180. Okay. Anyway.

SPEAKER_06 57:08

It includes meals.

SPEAKER_01 57:10

Three days, folks, and it's gonna include meals. Give me a break. Not that anyone is asking for it.

SPEAKER_05 57:15

All right, so you want to talk about your let's let's end it on the yeah.

SPEAKER_01 57:21

I'm about to I've got I it's incredible to think that when I got back from the UK in late May, or whenever that was, that I had the whole summer in front of me. And as we were talking about earlier, that whole summer is gone, folks. It is time for us to leave on our family vacation to New Hampshire with the nephews next week, this week on Friday. And then from there, I go, I fly directly to Portland, Oregon for the made bike show. And so been hustling this week to get some customer builds finished and parts ordered for upcoming customer builds because I'm only gonna have like two weeks before I when I get back before I go to France for nearly a month. So it's I'm getting my show bike together here, and it is a red Alumax 2. Yeah, and the theme is very much red. I know I did the red thing two years ago with an EVU, but I wanted to see how much further I could push it. So yeah, this one's been really fun, and you're gonna love it. So make sure to check out the ultradynamica slash runs bike booth at made if you're in Portland, Oregon. Not this weekend, but next. Okay, well.

SPEAKER_06 58:33

That's real life report facts. We don't have, I mean, we go on group rides regularly, and I think that y'all are a little bit bored hearing about our pizza rides and whatnot, but well, you know, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 58:47

We we are we are doing a pizza ride tonight. It is people care about this. Connor? Yeah, there's been one particular manager at auto and Chester for 13 years, and he is leaving. Connor, this is Connor's last week there, so we get that going. That's nice little, nice tight little community we have here. That's the real life report back. Connor is leaving. It has been it's been ricocheting across our friend group this past week since the news broke on Saturday.

SPEAKER_06 59:20

We take pizza and pizza places very seriously, and we are invested in the people who make us those pizzas.

SPEAKER_01 59:26

That's it, that's it.

SPEAKER_06 59:27

Also, fire in the kitchen, best pizza in Connecticut. Again, we'll be at the Norista. Because it wouldn't be the Nor'easter without them. They have been to every single one.

SPEAKER_01 59:38

And when you say best pizza in Connecticut, you mean best pizza in the world because this is the highest standard.

SPEAKER_06 59:44

People in New York disagree with that. They will fight you about it.

SPEAKER_01 59:47

People in Italy are very sour about all this.

SPEAKER_06 59:49

People in Italy, I'm sure, are even more sour. We just don't speak Italian. They just gotta leave the pizza in a little bit longer.

SPEAKER_01 59:55

They have to make the crust thinner and leave it in the oven a little bit longer. We don't want that flop, folks.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:00

No, all right. No, okay. We could go on to the phone. I was already getting mad in the hot goss session.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:14

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:15

And I'm not the only one that's mad about this, but the thing that I'm mad about rhymes with Phil Spigot.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:25

Oh, yes. Okay. That that's a little that's a little bit more cryptic than mine.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:30

Yeah, it rhymes with Phil Liggett because his name is Phil Liggett.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:34

Come on now.

SPEAKER_06 1:00:35

Come on now. AKA, the voice of cycling.

SPEAKER_01 1:00:40

I mean we've given Phil so much such a long leash because for me growing up, Phil, I mean, to me, that's what that's my childhood, listening to Phil Liggett announce bike racing. He is um I that that voice was just there. You could click through, you know, if you knew when to watch, you know, in the 90s pre-Lance, you know, if you knew you knew how to log on, if you had Outdoor Life Network, you could see some pretty good coverage. I don't, I I was not of the age to be critical of anything back then. But, you know, in my mind, you know, Phil Liggett has always been the voice of cycling. And he was getting, when I even when I got out of it watching pro racing in, you know, the 2010s, he was already, you know, you know, pretty ain't pretty old, I suppose, and already being kind of forgetful. He had just lost his longtime co-host, Paul Sherwin, and who looked quite a bit younger than him, which is was shocking. But the uh, you know, as that goes, this friendship that was once was, and then Phil was left mourning, and Paul Sherwin was replaced by Bob Roll. I have great respect for Bob Roll. I know a lot of other people who are being who are being critical of NBC Peacock's tour coverage these past have both have said that both Phil Liggett and Bob Roll suck. But the you know, of course, you know, what we were saying, Rob Hatch and Sean Kelly are kind of the gold standard.

SPEAKER_02 1:02:14

I I I would agree with that.

SPEAKER_01 1:02:15

But you know, if you're trying to watch cycling and pro cycling in the US, many of you may have noticed it's we're kind of we can't. I I guess if we had a VPN, things would be different because we can watch as if we were in Europe and see the TNT coverage.

SPEAKER_06 1:02:29

For sure. I mean, we already pay for so many services just to watch racing. Like I pay for HBO, I pay for Peacock to have no commercials, we pay for Flow Sports when we don't have that. We have YouTube Premium for when things are on. Like it is rack, it is, and then you have to pay for like a VPN thing because we are not savvy and we don't know how to get it for free without giving our passwords and bank information to a bunch of people on the dark web or whatever. We just don't know how to do it, okay? We are stuck with freaking fail forever.

SPEAKER_01 1:03:06

We were we were soft on him when you started watching.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:09

Like, yeah, let me let me give props to Phil where where credit is due. The man is 83 years old, he is an elder in the community, he has given his entire professional life to cycling coverage and commentating. And last night we watched a documentary that he did of the Motorola team taking on Perry Roubaix back in the day when Bob Roll himself was racing in it. Like he was an a Motorola athlete. And I have to say, he was probably what, like in his 40s or at the time, Phil Liggett, and he is on top of his game. Like he is he in this was I think 74 or something, right? Or 80s?

SPEAKER_01 1:03:52

Late 70s. Late 70s. No, it was like early 80s.

SPEAKER_06 1:03:55

Okay, that's what the vibe was with like but the documentary that Phil produced and wrote was brilliant. He was already announcing, and it was like what you would see coverage these days, like on YouTube by Teams, or it's just all of the all of the content has been kind of condensed into this one documentary, and it's really cool. The bike mechanic scenes, especially, I really enjoyed because they're getting really nerdy about like high-tech gear, and it's like the shifting.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:31

Okay, so this may have been the early, this was probably the early 90s because it was the the ST Shimano STI. So we're going from late 70s to early 90s.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:38

No, it's not early 90s.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:39

I think it is because that's when STI shifting came out.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:42

Okay, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:43

Yes, am I sexually transmitted STI? I don't know what I'm talking about.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:50

Do you think it's the early nineties?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:52

Yeah, it was early 90s.

SPEAKER_06 1:04:53

When see, when did we talk about the technique?

SPEAKER_01 1:04:56

So there so it was really uh this is we're kind of diverging from go ahead. It was this documentary, look it up on YouTube. It was it's what is the bike technology technology that they're going that the mechanic is showing off is is sh Shimano's you know brifter shifting, which was the first iteration of the Durace. I must have been eight speed at the time. And the mechanic is going through earnestly showing how, oh, you you pull the push the whole lever this way to shift one way, and then this little button shifts another way. And same thing on the other side. And everyone is just like, oh my goodness, because all the racers were racing with bar end or or down tube shifters at this point. And some of the bikes that they are setting up in there have a down tube shifter on the left side and a bar end shifter on the right side. Just such a cool, like cool thing. And some of the riders are coming across being like, I need more, I need just padding just on top of the handlebars here, not there, just here. And then the they Interview one mechanic who's got to put slightly larger tires on for Rubay, which are like 25 millimeters wide or something. And about how they have to have 40 wheels. So they're up, those mechanics are up all night gluing 40 wheels. Okay, so that every rider has spares for their spare bikes and so on. And then they have a race on Wednesday where they need different tires. So they had to take all the tires off afterwards and re-glue them with different tires for Wednesday. I don't know how well good mechanics have it now, but it seemed like back then that was like I don't think mechanics ever had a drive. They were going from race to race in like the back of a Volvo. Like there's no team bus or anything. Like it was pretty shoestring.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:42

Okay, so you were right. It was definitely not the late 70s. Because you said the shifter.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:50

Yeah.

SPEAKER_06 1:06:50

1991.

SPEAKER_01 1:06:51

Okay, that's you were so right. I was there. I remember going into a bike shop, Cycles of Madison, and seeing that shifting. This the am I saying this right? STI? I can't I I'm like, STI.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:07

I I guess that's what we're gonna call it. They're sexually transmitted infections.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:12

Can't be. I don't know what um why I'm doing this. Total brain fart. But I remember going into bike shops and seeing that it is STI.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:20

Yep. Shimano Total Integration is what it's called. STI.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:26

Shimano Total Integration. And so yeah, I could remember going into the bike shop and and and being told about this new way of shifting as an 11-year-old.

SPEAKER_02 1:07:38

Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:38

So anyway, we saw Phil in his prime in this documentary, so it gives us more ammo to be upset with how he's aged.

SPEAKER_06 1:07:46

Ammo. I don't have any ammo.

SPEAKER_01 1:07:49

But he needs to step out. I have emotion. He needs to step down. And I mean, the the crux of all this is as we were watching the FEMS for the first, you know, for the first seven stages stages, we had Hannah Walker, who's awesome, one of our favorite people. Yeah. I've never met her, but I would love to meet. I think like I'd love to meet Hannah Walker than any of the racers, even. I want to meet Hannah Walker. And then we have the guys Anthony.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:14

Anthony McCrossen.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:15

Which is, you know, we we listened to him on Encyclocross season because he's the commentator.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:19

Yeah, and we've been annoyed with Anthony before, but when he's an annoying way of talking. No, he's he's he's okay. I mean, after listening to British, but with Hannah Walker, he really stepped up his game.

SPEAKER_01 1:08:33

It seems like him and Hannah were having like a wonderful time, like going out to dinners together. Yeah, they had a great rapport. Yes. Um, they were they had each other's backs with whatever they said.

SPEAKER_06 1:08:43

Yeah, because I think Hannah is such a professional. She she knows how to do commentating so well, knows the women's field incredibly well, could go into background stories of every team's like training regimen, where they were two weeks ago for their altitude training. Like, she knows all of it. She knows the kind of breed the cows are that the the broadcast is picking up, and why Comte Cheese is so like exciting in France because that's where the you see those cows. Like, I know something about she is on it, she knows everything from the state and it brought Anthony's game up, honestly, because he respected her so much. I think those two in women's racing for all of them would be amazing because Phil Liggett.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:34

Yeah, on the when the when state when stage eight and nine come along for the weekend. I remember they did this last year too. Phil Liggett and somebody who's even worse than him come on.

SPEAKER_06 1:09:45

Megan, what's her last name?

SPEAKER_01 1:09:48

She's the next racer.

SPEAKER_06 1:09:49

Yeah, Megan Gwanier.

SPEAKER_01 1:09:52

She is not good at this.

SPEAKER_06 1:09:54

I don't know if it's because Phil kept interrupting her, but she also had zero excitement in her voice. They also weren't like next to each other. Right. You know, they were doing it.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:04

Which has got to be which I mean, I gotta give for an 83-year-old, that's gotta be very dis disoriented.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:10

That's even harder. That's what I'm saying is like there is a point where you have to stop doing the work.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:17

There was who's asking him to do this. No one.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:20

I think I think people have an emotional connection with him.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:23

Like for the femmes, who cares? Like, you know, it's like bring in somebody who the the I mean, nobody who's watching nobody who's watching the femmes care about Phil Liggett.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:34

I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:34

Barely who barely people who are watching like the men's race, what he's famous for announcing.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:39

I would love to hear the voice of Phil Liggett if he was on top of his game, like we saw in the Motorola documentary that he produced. Right. Because he was that voice is really soothing.

SPEAKER_03 1:10:52

Yeah, so spread it on toast.

SPEAKER_06 1:10:54

And he has been announcing for so long. He has been doing this job for like five decades.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:04

He's as old as Joe Biden.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:05

Right? He's 83 years old, and he is getting names wrong. He called Elise. He's 83. Anyway, he said he he was he didn't know anyone's names, first of all. He was saying Tour de France Feminine.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:22

Who did he call what did he call Elisa Longeborgini?

SPEAKER_06 1:11:25

He said Elise, he didn't say Elise Bongo Borghini, which is why that was my name.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:32

I'm like the Bongo Borghini.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:34

It's so disrespectful. It is so disrespectful to Elisa Longo Borghini. I know she probably is chill about it, but I was like, this woman has won pretty much everything, and she is towards the end of her career, seemingly, and this motherfucker is over here.

SPEAKER_01 1:11:52

Urska is just Tade's boy girlfriend.

SPEAKER_06 1:11:54

Urska's uh, yeah, better known as Tade's girlfriend, didn't even say her name, Urshka Ziggard. Like Urshka Ziggard, come on now. She is part of a great team that has Kim Lequeur in it, and she's won a couple of stages. Like she was a yellow jersey. Like she's like, it is disrespectful.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:13

I don't know why you'd pull out the A team and put in the B team for the last two stages of the race, thinking that you're putting in the A team.

SPEAKER_06 1:12:21

I know. Like it's so silly. The disconnect is slightly absolutely silly.

SPEAKER_01 1:12:26

Because so much of this race, especially the FEMS, where it's still making its name in the, you know, it's in the in the world of professional cycling, you know, relatively new to a lot of uh to compared to a lot of these other sports. And so when you have, you know, Bush League, it's not Bush League, this was when you have their A team, which is actually the B team, just kind of butchering names and you know, just not giving due respect to the racers and riders and everything that goes into this event, I don't, you know, you lose viewership because it's just not interesting in that way. When you have the right announcer, you know, cycling is such a passive watching experience. These races are hours long, and you're watching oftentimes you're just it's just dead air, you're watching scenery. And if you have a good announcer, they could turn that dead air into poetry, you know. And they can give you some amazing facts about the area that you may want to visit later and give you great s stats and facts about the riders and like intuitive bro, you know, intuitive reporting. Yeah, I'm not intuitive, what am I saying? You know, you just like informative informative, that's the word. You know, so you know, it's just it's just sad to see it go that way.

SPEAKER_06 1:13:37

And I don't know who's like, hey, you know, let's uh this this Reddit commentator says it perfectly to pull it all together. Megan, I've heard more excitement from a golf commentator. Announcers shouldn't be too over the top, but come on, this edition of the Tour de France Femmes of Xwift was incredible. She was describing it with zero enthusiasm. Phil tries, uh despite all of his fumbles, to put up the excitement, but unfortunately, he's not sharp enough. So the more excited he gets, the more mispronouncing he does. But even this awful commenting couldn't ruin the joy of watching the incredible finale of an evictor. I 100% agree with that comment, and it is a quite the shame that Phil Liggett isn't retiring when he should, because he could go back, he could, you know, stop doing this work and let someone else step into that role, which was a theme on a Planet Money podcast that was called Older Workers Aren't Retiring and why that's not a good thing for people. Phil Liggett, when he was doing the Motorola thing, was in his 40s, and this podcast talked about how people who are younger in the profession tend to give more like they were talking about in academia, but they have more like interesting research they want to do, a little bit more like with the times of the like introductions to ideas, they are more daring with their like you know, actually informed and makes sense, like which makes sense, which doesn't make sense, right? Like the the older workers tend to reproduce the stuff that they've already done, and the younger people are producing newer, fresher stuff. So if we want cycling to have newer, fresher audiences that that we need, let's get newer, fresher voices in there. I think Taylor Finney would be a great person to be commenting. He knows all of this information, he's got a great voice, he's got an artistic lens.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:52

You should do it.

SPEAKER_06 1:15:53

Yeah, yeah. Me and Hannah Walker, we would have a lot of fun.

SPEAKER_01 1:15:58

Yeah, right.

SPEAKER_06 1:15:59

I know nothing about this, but yeah, I think I think there are plenty of other people who would be dying for an opportunity like this.

SPEAKER_01 1:16:09

And make it more interesting so that more people can get into the sport. Because that is really what we're grappling with.

SPEAKER_06 1:16:15

Yeah, yeah. We just we want we need the sport to grow so that these riders can get what they're and in the US, where there's so much interest in this, you know, because this is where the broadcast is coming to, like the the world feed gets like more lot of fun teams, yeah, is in the US because we're not a cycling nation. Because we have we are we are bongo borghinies over here and people's girlfriends riding. Like, just give us some like get us excited, give us information, tell us what's actually happening. Like, give us the broadcast, the full broadcast coverage. Tell us like that. If someone crashed, have the footage so we know that they're they hit this area and that area, so you can be better informed about cyclists when they are in a moment where they couldn't be making decisions because they got a concussion or whatever it is. It is not just about coverage so we can fast forward through it. It is better for team tactics to be dialed in. It is, it is something that you can study as as groups so we can get more information, get more data points, how the race is moving, the women's paloton, the women's side of things in the pro world. We just don't have enough information on how the race works. For the men, like the patterns have been set for like a hundred years. The Tour de France Femmes has been happening just in the last five years. Phil is saying Tour de France Feminine because that's what it was called when it ran for four consecutive years in the 80s. So that's what he's talking about. I do like that there's like a little bit of a historical connection to it, but give respect where respect is due and start saying the names properly so we can get funding for this because the interest is there and we're losing people because they keep making these old people who don't know what they're talking about anymore to be the voice because of nostalgia of his voice. His voice could still be used for already written things, you know, like he did with Deer Cycling, like whatever he did at the end.

SPEAKER_01 1:18:32

His rhino thing.

SPEAKER_06 1:18:33

His rhino thing. Like if it's already scripted, I would love to continue to hear Phil's voice, but I would like for it to be a pre-recorded segment, you know, where he's talking about like highlights or something. He can still be involved. I'm not saying like kick old people out, although the podcast, Planet Money Podcast, did say, you know, there are people there's required retirement age within certain professions. And I certainly think that this should be one of them. Okay, my madness has ended. Should we uh listen to these ducks for a little bit?

SPEAKER_01 1:19:09

I think you can hear them just chugging water right now. These these ducks drink, these are very well hydrated ducks. I think they would do well with carb supplements, too.

SPEAKER_06 1:19:19

Very should we have them try the granola?

SPEAKER_01 1:19:23

All right. Well, folks, we forgot to shout out our contributors. There's only two new ones. We put this in in the front of the show last week. And our contributors, maybe we're hitting a plateau here with our contributors.

SPEAKER_06 1:19:37

Yeah, we've got Eric Nutter and Jamie Maggiera. Jamie Eric Nutter. Thank you, Eric, and Jamie Maggie era.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:50

Could be Maggie era.

SPEAKER_06 1:19:51

Magiera? Okay.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:53

Thank you to the both of you.

SPEAKER_06 1:19:55

Thank you so much. We'll see you next week.

SPEAKER_01 1:19:58

Oh, yeah. One quick note.

SPEAKER_06 1:20:00

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:00

Y'all remember the local pervert that we had on the podcast a few uh? Alex.

SPEAKER_06 1:20:06

Alex Divison.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:08

He has his full. We were talking about that, kind of that yo eddy uh chisel bike that he was building up.

SPEAKER_06 1:20:15

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:16

Well, that bike is finished. We've got photos, and it is up on the Radivist as of two days ago.

SPEAKER_06 1:20:21

Oh, yeah. Good photos.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:22

Be sure to check that out.

SPEAKER_06 1:20:23

That's right.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:24

All right. Well, folks.

SPEAKER_06 1:20:26

Ouch, thanks for biting me.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:28

They don't bite.

SPEAKER_06 1:20:29

They're just nipping.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:30

Yeah. So, folks, we're wrapping it up here. Thanks for tuning in once again. This is always a fun conversation to have with you last week, both.

SPEAKER_05 1:20:39

You too, darling.

SPEAKER_01 1:20:40

And I hope everyone feels beloved out there and gets out for some bike rides this week because it's always a good week to drive. Okay, well. Have a great week. We'll see you next week. Bye.

SPEAKER_02 1:20:58

Bye.