1.Hello you beautiful cycling fans and welcome back to another A1 show,…

Hello you beautiful cycling fans and welcome back to another A1 show, Vuelta special. So stage 4 we had drama, drama, drama. Some Bennett pipped on the line or was he pipped on the line, who knows, drama in Bora Hansgrove as their force and Bennett to stay there. It looks like and Wiggins came out and said I don't give a shit about my cycling career. We're gonna chat about all that and a lot more. So let's jump right in. Before we get started, I'd like to give a big shout out to our show sponsor, Missing Piece from Donnie Gull, our Dara and Donnie Gull. Missing Piece as you will have heard if you've been listening to the Vuelta podcast. They are the shit. They're custom, custom designed, chopboards, coasters. If you're looking for something for a birthday coming up, if you're looking for communions, confirmations, something to commemorate those sort of days, go check out missing piece, it's really cool. My chop boards and stuff are all in the mail so I can't wait to get them and let you know what it's like when I chop up my ribeye on one. Also I spoke about that idea of the jigsaw which is an amazing gift, it's the jigsaw picture frames, that's a really cool idea, I know a bunch of you guys are already talking about getting them so hopefully you go and check out missing peace. It's like I remember a couple of years ago in the store buying a vacuum cleaner with my girlfriend and she wanted to buy a Dyson. I was like we buy Bissell, we buy Bissell in this house. We support anyone who supports cycling. So I hope that's what you guys do as well. It's nice to give back to the sponsors that are supporting cycling productions and cycling clubs and cycling teams and all that sort of thing. It's still fun off for this industry of errors to grow. So let's do a whole people help and people. It's powerful. It's powerful. Okay, Sami Benas is the fastest man on earth and he was robbed today. I potentially, it's hard to call it on that photo finish. Does anyone in it's tight if you look at it from the other angle to me it looks like Bennett won. Yacobson won the stage from Quickstep followed by Bennett. Interesting to know actually that Gaviria was for it. I did say Gaviria was you know potentially a threat to Bennett but now I didn't turn out he didn't really contest but Yacobson wasn't the fastest buddy guard the lead out trying nailed. Right let's Let's talk about the major talk points of the day. Stage, not that much so. So I'll wiz through the stage and then I'm going to hit someone at talk and point. EF hit it in the crosswind about 15k to go. Iran actually crashed today but he got in and he looks unscathed. EF hit it in the crosswind about 15k to go. They definitely put a lot of hurt on a lot of people. Some sore legs out there already even four stages in and there were some splits. Notable people got dropped in the split. Pelt missed out, he doesn't look like he's at the races at all, he's going to spend on all this. Inyos have already changed, they're tactic to go for stages apparently. I don't know if that was an elect of decision from Inyos, I think that was more a compulsory one. The racist dictated lads that you go for stages because you are screwed on GC. So don't make it look like that it was an elect of decision. What Pelt has an elect, T.O. Gag and Hart has the leg, he's completely shit the bed and he's not four days in. Yumba Vizma are a team that are policing duty, they know Rugglic is good. The Kreuzwek abandoned today actually, where I wonder why Kreuzwek was dropped on the climb the other day on stage two. It turns out he's an injury from stage one in the team time-traw and he's abandoned today. So, hard to know. Maybe this is just maybe in the center club, but hard to know how much of it is the injury. He didn't look like he was peddling that bad and how much of it is. Croy baby syndrome that he was just there going as a team leader.

2.He's a podium on the Tour de France

He's a podium on the Tour de France. It turns out he hasn't got the form and then all of a sudden he doesn't want to play support role. Who knows? I'm I'm sure we'll hear a little bit more about that. But Yumbo are on police in duty as it got sketchy coming into the flying. I'll tell him art and do him what he does. Sticking the Panzer wagon on the front and rolling through the streets of Spain. He's a good man for it. He just ups his pace at the right times to get them in true round about true turns and P123 and then he's back off again until they start getting challenged and he gases it again. He's a great man. He's done that for Cavendish back in the HTC Columbia days and he's well adept at it. But it's putting down our statements. The statement is Rogler Chaslegs, Rogler's just calling for pace, Rogler wants to stay safe, he doesn't want to take any chances. This is the world that he wants to win. Quickstep played a tactical masterclass. Listen to Jakobsson afterwards, it was all improv. It's like a good comedian they improv'd it all. They sent Kabbana up the road and we have a 5k to go. He took a corner well and he gapped the peloton and he stuck the head down and went for home. What that really done was it truly impeded us over to Borra. The rest of the peloton looked at Borra and they said, you know what, you've got the fastest man in the race, you close it down. Borra had to respond because if they didn't, Jakobsson has an engine and he was going to away. Sorry, Cabana has an engine and he was going to go away and take the stage. So Bora had to use up their men which left Bennett oil slices in the final and how that manifested itself was Bennett took a roundabout on the wrong side. He went right side when he sure went left side with about a k-1.2 maybe kilometers to go and Bennett had no men left to bring him back up after that. He had to make an effort and that's beed every effort. Like what we're What you're talking about here is, have you seen any given Sunday? An alpaccino, he gives this impassioned emotion speech in the dressing room where he says, life's this game at inches. That's what's brilliant in this, it's a game of inches, it's marginal gains. Bennett's sticking his nose in the window, having to accelerate when the bunch is already down 60 plus kilometers an hour, that's taking it out of the legs. He's lost that race by about a millimeter today. No doubt in my mind that extra effort at the roundabout caused them. That extra effort was necessary because it attacked the masterclass from Quickstep. So Quickstep delivered the lead out perfectly then. Jakobsen wasn't the fastest man but he didn't spring until 150. Bennett had to make up two, three, Boitlins and come through all sorts of gaps to get there. He almost got there, like if the race had been a foot longer, distance had been one foot longer today, Bennett nails it. So, Bennett is the fastest, but he's gonna have to get used to, other teams are gonna start leaning on him, leaning on him, and a certain pressure comes with that. Bennett's well able to look after himself, he's a man who loves that little bit of rough and tumble and he was not afraid to bang a few shoulders when he was coming back, in position after that round the bell. He is in the Green Jersey, so the absolute Irish domination of this race continues. We have Bennett and Green and we have Rolch and Red. So it's an amazing spectacle of cycling for Irish fans out there at the moment. Bennett was talking after race about his chances of claiming the Green Jersey overall and he said it's Delft, this isn't a verbatim account or Bennett said it was basically a sentiment was Delft. It's normally a climber who takes a nivh-welter so it's not really a sprint classification. But here what the hell is going on at Bora. It looks like Sam Bennett is not being allowed to leave the team at the moment from the Rumblands we're here on.

3.There's a dispute going on between Bora and Bennett

There's a dispute going on between Bora and Bennett. Bennett wants out and Bora don't want to lose him. So it looks to me or it sounds from what I can gather that Saigon is the man pulling the strings on this. So Saigon doesn't want Sam Bennett at the Tour de France. He doesn't want Sam Bennett on the Tour de France team. It's team Peter, it's not Bora Hansgrove. So on team Peter, he wants to go for the Grand Jersey and he doesn't want Bennett taken from his limelight. He doesn't want to be the second fastest man on the team and he just doesn't want that extra I haven't been around Fair enough, but then he also doesn't want to lose Bennett to another team because he doesn't want to sprint against them Probably because he knows Bennett's faster than him So the result of this is I don't know how this is working contractually because I would assume Bennett's contract is up with Bora So I don't have to refuse him to let him go when his contracts are over I if someone in the comments sheds a bit of loyon that if they've any insight in the what the hell's going on there A quick step looked like they're ready to step in for Benus and the winner today, Yacobson, could be going back to Lead Out duty for Benus. They'd have some Lead Out trying F2O Yacobson into that as well and Benus the last man's printing. It'd be better to be de-undisputed later there, especially with Viviani going to Cofras. It speaks absolute yards to Benus professionalism that he's delivering these performances under this cloud. This is Benus' big move. So England is a hard sport, it's dangerous, it's tough to get to the top, you have a lot of years again, Paige, it's a lot of time, very close to cracking and walking away from the bike altogether. It's spent a lot of time out in Belgium in that Kelly house, tough place to be for anyone out there, it's not a lot going on in Belgium and you know, this is his reward and he has a very narrow window now where he has to make this profitable, especially if he doesn't want to be working after he finishes cycling. So he needs to make the next two, three years profitable. And who knows after that. So it's a very, very important meal for him. He needs to get this meal away from Bora. He's not going to ride it toward France, at Bora, with Saigon there. So he needs to get out. So it just has to happen in my mind. Hopefully it gets a resolution that's where all happy with and forget about what's all happy. Hopefully he gets a resolution that's almost happy and he gets the money that he deserves and he gets to race the big races that he deserves. Yacobson was, I think he was 7th yesterday, who's top 10 anyway but he was, he seemed happy about it because he said it's all about learning and suffering and then today, 22 year old Dutch champion, he rolls the win. So he's the second national champion to win in two days and he's equally is proud to win in the National Championship jersey as Bennett was, who was saying after the stage that came here to win in this jersey. So it's such a massive source of pride for these lads win the National Championship jersey, which is amazing to see. But what I thought was a bit crazy and it happens at every grand tour, it's where it gets messy. The GC teams fighting with the sprint teams coming into the final. I don't know if we can have a real change or if we can have something that means that the GC teams don't have to worry about these small little splits in the bunch in the last 3k, maybe on other times taking in the last 3k if you have a mechanical or a crash, but maybe they should just take the time in the last 3k on a sprint stage full stop and the GC teams can sit up and get the hell out of there, because it seems to be what causes a lot of the GC guys aren't as good as Benison, Gaviria, and Jakobsen and these boys at Banging Shoulders, their team, they're not lead out men, their team, like domestiques, rollers, deposition them, aren't as adept at this.

4.It's not their skill set, they're mainly meant for the mountains

It's not their skill set, they're mainly meant for the mountains. It causes carnage and it's that inequality of skill level as well that causes a lot of problems in the final. So I don't know, I'd like to see something done about that. What do you think about the idea of a tree kilometer to go? That's it for GC. The boys can sit up and cruise in. Regardless of if there's splits, they all get the same time in in the last tree, I assume that it's a flat run in and it's not, you know, kickers and stuff in the last bit. They're my meandering thoughts on that one. Anyway, speaking of my meandering thoughts, I actually got out and rolled my bicycle this morning in the sun for a couple of hours. Beautiful weather here in Dublin, Ireland. And it's just, it's so dangerous out on the bike these days. Like I was out riding on my own. And I'd say conservatively twice a car passed me within a centimeter of me and they passed at speed at 60 plus kilometers an hour. Like one time the second car hit my knuckle going past with their wing mirror, they were that close. Like it's nuts. They were on an open road or they would have been chasing them down for the confrontation which does nothing so in hindsight I'm glad they were on the open road. It's just it's it's dangerous and it's it almost feels like times like you're just waiting to get hit so I'm actually thrown back on my German like I can't even remember what they're called it's a german Can't remember you know the we let german raid our light I'm gonna throw it up back on and has that little proximity sensor that tells you how close it care is and that shows up When you're german, I'm gonna try to back on I haven't used it in a while, but it has me completely freaked out today so that's my mid podcast rant over. GC is unchanged, our very own Nicholas Roch tops out GC, Narrow Cantana at 2 seconds and Rigobert Doran, the spoilt is crashed today, is still sitting pretty in pink and tore place at 8 seconds. Other news, we had Bradley Wiggins doing an interview for a big issue and Wigan seems to have changed a lot because I have friends who were teammates at Wigan's at Skye and you didn't get the same impression from them as the version of Wigan's We See in the Media. It was more a recluse socially awkward, not connected to the lads character that I'd heard and he wasn't especially well. I wouldn't say he wasn't especially well liked but he was distant from the group and he turned on the kind of media joke or central attention when the cameras are around but very much introvert. That seems to have changed a lot and he seems to have, you know, like, he seems to have, looking, he seems to be able to step out of his body and look back on that version of himself and pass judgment on it and he's nearly moved on, he's nearly buried the site and that was Bradley and there's a new version, there's Wiggle and there's a new version now Bradley. He now came out in a big issue and he said, I don't give a shit about my cycling career now. I don't want to live off the back of it and he's retraining as a social worker. So Wiggans never want to rest on his laurels. I think he was working as a postman before Christmas. I know a social worker. So he's definitely one that whether he likes it or not, he courts media attention media loves them and yeah the media obviously loved them more and around the J.V. bag scandal and he was the he was the lads of HACTUM they weren't a happy pair now they're a restaurant they're a restaurant of questionably dressed brothers kind of something pair some Russian hackers some something bear not pair yeah anyway big bear friendly bear some the Russian hackers anyway the out the JFI bag therapeutic use exemption scandal. Tomorrow what have we got? Tomorrow we have the Vuelta Aspania GC battle starting in earnest. We have a summer finish with peaks up to 16%.

5.Spanish name is translated as the peak of Vultures

The Spanish name is translated as the peak of Vultures. That is going to be absolutely epic. Can Nicholas Rochhold the jersey? I don't know. Hard to see if the climb is kicking up to 16% and it's going to be Small Group coming to the line. The cantana is not going to take two seconds out of them. I feared it could be Nicko's last day in red. I really feared for Nicko. I hope I'm wrong. If it's a Small Group coming to the line, Nicko is fast enough out of a Small group especially when he's in goal condition so you wouldn't know. It'll be a real test, it'll be the first one where I will know if Nick O was a token two trade eyes and red which he should be proud of its second home he's worn his career massive accomplishment or if he's gonna be a serious top foy of GC contender. Hopefully some of you guys got the bookies and stuck on your your bets from yesterday who was our value bets we had from yesterday. We'd vavered I think it was at 11 to one we the tour was another one the people were talking about on Twitter but yeah I still have the opinion that I know it's sort of I can sneak onto the podium on this like Rob Litch content and there's one spot there so yeah comment down below and let me know I think I'm gonna stop putting these on YouTube I think we're gonna stick to the podcast platform and maybe keep them on Facebook so do share it around for anyone that you know that's watching on the YouTube and let them know that you got to download a podcast app you got to move with the Times folks. Get on board for our training camp. Our training camp is November 9th, November 15th in Cambrails Resort in Spain. A link is down below. That's going to be insane. Also our eight-week challenge your season is not going to have you wanted. Don't lie to yourself you've had a shit season. Don't be lose or finish out the season strong. Yeah have a think about how's the season gone how you want it and if it hasn't have a think about what you're going to do about that because you don't have to throw in the towel, you don't have to start looking up winter kit online, you don't have to abandon all hope. I'll get some born today. There's the Irish website which a lot of us check out for our southern news is Sticky Ball. They posted an article about winter yesterday. I'll get some born. There's plenty of sun left, there's plenty of racing left, there's racing early in the hood of 22nd. Classically I race to 22nd to September in Cork and I'm sure the same all around the world that you're racing right into September. If you're not a racer, just sportive events. I know local to me is the great Dublin Boykroyd which kicks off late in September as well. So there's sportive events, there's gravel events, there's road races. Even if you're not into the organised shit, it's just nice to get out in the good weather. So don't fall into the winter's common trap yet, there's plenty of sunshine left. Jump on that eight week challenge because that epic and it's transforming lads already. I'm going to pop the link for everything our show sponsor at Missing Piece, it's down below go get your chop board and chop some shit up and I'm going to pop in our training camp and the 8 week challenge and I will be back to you tomorrow. I'm going to be back to you tomorrow order in a very celebratory mood after a road trip pulls off a climbing miracle or a proud moment looking back on an Irish leader of the that's our biggest boy craze in the world. Thanks for listening to my rambling yet again, and I hope you're enjoying the Vuelta podcast, and I shall shut you tomorrow.