Let's talk about five things we learned from the tour of the Basque…
Let's talk about five things we learned from the tour of the Basque Country. Let's cue that intro! The big question is this. How do we use cycling as a tool to improve our health, our happiness and our long-chived? That is the question and this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Anthony Welch and welcome to the Roadman Podcast. Well man, welcome back to another roadman cycling podcast. The tour of the Bass country concluded over the weekend. I think it was the best bike race of the season so far. Definitely the final stage was I came in from a ride on Sunday and it wasn't so far. I was tired, I had planned on just going, I hadn't slept brilliant the night before, I planned on going straight to bed and the last 60 kilometers toward a bass country were on and I said I'll watch five kilometers and I just got sucked in sucked in sucked in it was so good as good a television as I've seen if you haven't watched it definitely worked on back to watch we have pre-moss rug glitch you know front of the bike race ripping it up again I want to unpack the toward the bass country and give you five things that I think we can walk away from knowing that that we didn't know before that race started. Before that you're that roadman, let me remind you for the FRESH time this week, about patreon.com. Roadman, patreon is how we fund the podcast. The podcast has been going about a year now and I wanted to continue growing into the future, but to be able to put in time, expense and hosting, distribution, and retention out to guests, it needs to make cash. And so far, our only way of monetizing the podcast, it's true your user generosity. So if you haven't donated a podcast yet, I'd ask you to please press pause, head across to the link in the bio. It's just patreon.com forward slash Anthony underscore Walter make a small donation because it keeps the podcast on the road. And honestly, for me, it's validation that we're going the right direction when I see these small little donations going in as like, Oh, that episode touched somebody that meant something to somebody. They got an insight into a race that they didn't know there. So roadman, I'd encourage you to do that. And also, you know, follow me on Instagram as always go to this roadman.cycling. I just had friends about her. Honestly, that's how we grow. And it's your talk show. Send me messages, topics you want to talk, topics you want me to discuss, guests you want me to talk to. It's our little community. We're building it, roadman. So look, get behind this. Five things from the tour of the Basque Country. I suppose number one, We always had that in our heads. Did Roglich, maybe it was in Moyhead, Mortenham's in Roglich's head, and from the result it looks that way, can Roglich beat Pogacha in a time-trouter? Because after the horror show in La Plata Belfie last year where Roglich lost the Tour de France in dramatic fashion in the final time-trouter, we are all maybe wondering, is it possible for Roglich to beat Pogacha? Or is it just this mental block he has with his Slovenian compatriot? But on the opening day, Tour de France country Roglic put that to bed winning the time trial and best in his Slovenian counterpart by 28 seconds, Pogacia was back in fifth place.
Interestingly, the Tour de France has a shit-ton of time trial…
And interestingly, the Tour de France has a shit-ton of time trial kilometres this year and less than 15 hours after winning the Tour de France country, Roglicious back on the time trial bike and he was the owner reconnaissance for time trials in Tour de France. So that is a dedication to the craft this man has for time trial. And if you don't ride your time trial bike at least every second day you will not be a fast time trialist. I've had the pleasure of being teammates with some blistering fast time trial. Some of the best in the world and they all ride their time trial bike an incredible amount. It's that restricted hip flexor angle you need to get used to it and ride that time trial bike very very often. The second thing I learned is a lot of Yumba can just shorten out this factory like I'm gonna absolutely butcher this name. Vingard, he steps up and he finishes, toward the opening TT and second overall and a lot of talk going into toward a bass country was look they don't have a team to back up, we don't have our usual sepcoops, George Bend, they don't have the team to back up Roglicher but then they have this Vigardae, the Dane, sorry I'm butchering his name, we have this Dane, he steps up and he's second on GC and he's an absolute beast all the way through and even on the last day when Roglicher's up the road he's doing great disruptive work and we can see how full straight Pogatra gets in the chase and that's largely because of him. So whatever's going on at Yum Bovizma, however they're bringing in Reuters through and this talent ID streaming them through, it seems to be working super, super well. Tourting oil iron is you need to be able to go uphill to win a race like Tour de Pascontri, which also need to be able to go downhill. And we've seen this on the last day in dramatic fashion where we had a Stana Premier Tech new sponsor. They had them railing at the cent with only a few riders able to follow and Primos Roglic Distant the race leader, Brandon McNulty and Pogacha to go clear into the soils of break of the day with Hugh Carty and David Godot ultimately did go to the finish. Godot takes the stage, Roglic takes the overall, all because of superior descending skills. Skills are a part of the sport that are increasingly neglected in this power meter generation of watts, sparchelos, strava segments and poxies with races. You need to be able to go downhill, around corners, distribute weight, understand grip. You need to be able to do this. It is a crucial skill for our sport. Number four thing I learned is that Roglic is growing as a boycroider. If we think back to Peri Nis and his name escapes me. What was the young Bahrain-Marida roider that Roglic rubbed And the last he was out solo and Roglich attacked and caught him like a few hundred Not even a few hundred meters like 50 meters in the line to rob him of a stage when the first of his career Roglich was heavily criticized for Roglich subsequently came out and said it was always the plan to win that stage but it's your real judgment in my opinion and a lot of leading cycling analysts felt the same and Roglich learned from that today on Sunday and he, I don't want to say gifted staff had got out of stage but the deal was done.
Got out road very very hard the Francis de Giroroder road very very…
Got out road very very hard the Francis de Giroroder road very very hard but Roglic on the last climb. There was a mutual benefit there Roglic took the overall. Got out took the stage. Everyone is happy. Roglic has made a friend. Roglic is learning, he's growing, he's starting to understand the nuances of the sport. Shappole tune for that. And lastly from Torah Bass Country We learned that even UAE and the mighty Pogacha can get it super super wrong at times And they had the leaders jersey going into the last stage They decided to prioritize Brandon McNulty as the team leader going in Pogacha's working for him then we have a climb and There's slightly gaps from Roglic already as we talked about the importance of that downhill but on the climb McNulty starts getting gapped from Pogacha and They decided to change team leader on the climb halfway through. Pogacha playles on ahead, Magnolty's left chasing on his own in the Yellow Jersey. Which is always a tragic sight to watch the race leader isolated and chasing on his own. So he's chasing and then Pogacha's in the group ahead pushing clear so it was a mess. I don't know what they were thinking. There was two things that should have happened. Other A, at the start of the day, they designate Pogacha team leader and they say although Brandon McNulty has the race lead. We don't believe he can get over these climbs. Pogacha is the protected rider or B you say, Brandon McNulty is the race leader. Pogacha has more important objectives later in the season. He's the protected rider but they don't need her. They change leadership halfway up the climb and they end up looking like apes and then we see Pogacha in this bizarre, petulant sort of hand swinging at the young day in from Yumbo Visma, as if he's gonna roitro and chase Roglish. It was bizarre and it definitely, you know, it painted Pogacha in a light and an image that we prefer not to see, and a bit of a petulant spoiled kid nearly. Row man, it is the start of another week. Get out there, roitro boy, be safe, but go explore, and I'm gonna chat to you again tomorrow. Hey everybody, it's Anthony again. Really quick, I want to invite you to join arguably the best thing I've ever put out inside the roadman community. It's a challenge. It's a challenge called a 14-day Kickstarter challenge. So regardless of where your fitness is at right now, this is going to be the catalyst for making you faster and making you the leaner. I've created this challenge to take the guesswork out of everything. It's 14 days of training plans, regardless of what your level is. There's the master's beginner, advanced. There's meal plans, shopping list and even a video course holding your hand and talking you true at all. So what I recommend you do right now is just stop everything, press pause on this audio and go to roadmancycling.com forward slash 14 day or check out the link in the bio. That's roadmancycling.com slash 14 day.