1.We did, yeah. I think I was actually looking back at those videos, I…

We did, yeah. I think I was actually looking back at those videos, I think, during this lockdown period, and I was sort of like missing that sort of fun family vibe. I was, yeah, just looking back at the videos of our green edge. And the amazing times that we had, and that Dan Jones got it all on camera too, which made it even more special to look back at. And I think at the time, maybe we all took it a little bit for granted. The big question is this. How do we use cycling as a tool to improve our health, our happiness and our long-chevages? That is the question on this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Anthony Walsh and welcome to the Roadman Podcast. Hello you beautiful roadman, welcome back to another roadman podcast. Doo doo doo, have you been all week? Back for your weekly dose of cycling Torftalk. So this week I have someone who needs no introduction, always hated for people to say that, obviously the man needs an introduction or you wouldn't know who he is. He is one of the biggest stars in our sport. It is Michael Blingmachus. What hasn't this man done in cycling? He's won the Green Jersey, he's won a Tour de France stage, he's won a Vuelta stage, he's won a Jiro stage, he's won a pink jersey in the Jiro, he's done the podium in Milan San Remo, he's been under 23 World Champion, he is a dude, he is one of the true, true legends in the sport at the moment. And if it hadn't been for Sagan, he could have picked up a rake, Grangersies. And I still see that in his very, very near future. I'm really excited to dive into this chat. But before I do, there's a little thing called Patreon, P-A-T-R-E-O-N, patreon.com. And if you head on over to patreon.com forward slash Anthony underscore Walsh, think of that like the engine that drives this podcast. Patreon and the generosity of some of your co listeners is the reason that this podcast is still enduring. It's still surviving. I've mentioned every week on the podcast the importance of Patreon. If you've been putting it off and it is something you can afford, I encourage you to please jump over and you know what, pay me for my work. Jump on over to Patreon, buy me a coffee and say, you know what, thanks for facilitating these chats. Here's the money for a point. here's the money for a beer, might seem like a small gesture on your part, but it is honestly the life blow that drives this podcast. It's how I'm able to get these guys. And you know, it's hopefully the means that this show continues into the future. Cause I really, what I want to be doing is bringing you guys daily Tour de France podcasts. And that's only possible when we get behind that Patreon. So please, please, please jump on over there and your generosity is much appreciated by me and your fellow listeners. Secondly, if you haven't checked out the romance wag, jump on over and check that out. There's a bunch of people have got romance yet, should be here in the next couple of weeks and I can't wait to rock it. So if you're following me on Instagram, you'll see the romance yet as soon as it arrives and me rocking it at the local coffee shop. It's funny here in Ireland, we've been unleashed back into the world after the lockdown and the various stages have been lifted. We're back at a 20k radius and it's meant most people are back out trying it for the first time. I proudly canceled my swift membership. It was a great day for the parish and we're back to doing what's so equal to do outside. But I met a friend the other day and I had met him all the way through the lockdown and I met him almost didn't meet him as probably where should start that story. I arranged to meet him and then he's not never flaky the least flaky man I know and he was flaking on the spin and I rang him I was like what's going on and he's like honestly I've put on a lot of weight he's like and I only realized that when I got back in my kit to come for a riot yesterday, how much weight I've put on. And when I ended up didn't mean him on the chart, when we stopped for a coffee, he kind of started confiding in me saying, you know, he was almost going to cancel this bin because he got a glimpse of himself the day before in the mirror. And he didn't like what he looked. And it was playing havoc with his, you know, sense of who he is, his sense of self. And it's something that, you know, as it just sat with me, obviously, I chartered with gave him some dietary tips and bits and you know he's on a good path now but it was just something that that conversation brought up a phrase I've heard over and over again the covid stone I've heard people saying and you know people the covid stone is real and up to that point it hadn't really resonated with me so I wanted to pull together a little bit of a nutrition program for everybody who's been sending those messages the covid stone any tips any advice so put together a little bit of a nutrition course and I'm gonna put a link to that in the boil.

2.That's definitely worth checking out if you're someone who has been…

That's definitely worth checking out if you're someone who has been struggling with that COVID stone and it's really around, it's not a diet, it's around sustainable eating patterns, it's a diet of power cycling, you know, so that's definitely worth checking out. Okay, we've put it off long enough, perverbial drum That's more music in the start of a movie, isn't it? But there we go. Lion roar cue. Michael bling. Matches. Michael Matches, welcome to the Roadman Podcast. Thank you. I'm not sure what I call you. Michael, do I call you bling? Whatever you feel like, mate, I get mixed names at the moment. It's, yeah, I think it's depending on the mood or if someone's angry at me or happy with me is what I get called these days. Is it like Michael, your parents calling you, you know, you're in trouble? Michael, get in here, I need to talk to you. Exactly, probably with a bit more tone of a voice but something like that. What is playing? Where did that come from? Yeah, I came from a motocross background into cycling and yeah, where I'm from in Canberra. The big cycling scene was sort of the rich kids from the private school that just came from their private schools. We came with their suits to the training. And yeah, we're totally different people to me. So I came there straight from school, like coming from a public school, so we didn't have uniforms. I could wear whatever I wanted, have any hairstyle I wanted, which it was great. My mum was a hairdresser. So I could have a different haircut, haircut, hairstyle every week. So I was quite privileged there and actually rocked up to a track cycling event, I think three or four times. And no one really gave me much. I was sort of a bit by myself. I was new to the whole scene and after a couple of times going there, one of the guys' dads that I became friends with over the few weeks gave me the nickname Bling. It just totally came from nowhere, to be honest. I knew I was a little bit outrageous as a kid that, yeah, I was definitely different to the rest of them, but yeah, it's pretty much stuck from there. I came with long necklaces, crazy glasses, I think all different colors in my hair, all different shavings down the side. I had a belt, actually, that said, like something across the front of it. You could put like writing on like a billboard. I had a belt that went across like that, and studs on it and tattoos on me. And I guess it speaks for itself really. D'Ozzies are pretty good at giving nicknames. It's kind of like a, I thought it was like a real Irish thing till I got to know a few Ozzies. And you guys love your nicknames as well. Mm-hmm. Yeah, I think every, everyone's just like has a close friend or something. We all give each other nicknames. I actually don't know why, but seems to be better than our real names to be honest. It's like I went to school with a guy. I don't know what he's doing now. probably like quite a respectable profession. He's probably like an accountant or something. But when he was like five years old, he glued his hands to the desk. And so since that day, he's been called sticky. So it's like he's turned five years old or something now and he's called sticky. I don't know, for a bastard. It's not a nice nickname for an adult as a cutie like, okay, but where are you living at the moment? I'm in Monte Carlo at the moment. I've been here for seven years now maybe. What's it trying to look around there? Beautiful. Honestly, best in the world. I haven't been down there. I must get down and check it out. Yeah, definitely. I consider Monaco like a theme park, adults. Obviously you have all the flashy things in the town and then for our cyclists we have amazing roads all around all around us. So basically you can climb straight from Monaco to I think 1700 meters pretty much above sea level and you can do five climbs in between there and five climbs after. So yeah it's like a thing park. So if chat to a few of you guys that are based out in Dora and like you wonder how much, it's kind of the same at Monaco, I always wondered how much of it is tax reasons and how much of it is the riding is amazing. To be honest, what drew me to Monaco was the tax reasons. But once I arrived, I realized, okay, the tax is obviously nice, but I don't think so many of the top pros would live here just for tax reasons. We still need to train, we still need to maintain that level, get better. And yeah, most of the guys you talk to here are just obsessed with the training, honestly. The only bad thing might be riding along the water on the coast is a little bit busy in the summer, but you can go straight up the hill and you're basically alone for five hours. Nice. How does the tax work? Do you need to own a property there or do you need to just be resident? Just to resident, yeah, and you put zero tax. So I think on our apartments, it goes up maybe 1% every year, which I think is some sort of of Flax, but so yeah, every year in the apartment, you pay the rent that you agree on, and then 1% every year it goes up to your state and same apartment.

3.Have you got a good group of trainer partners

And have you got a good group of trainer partners? Yeah, I have a super group actually. I have Nick O'Roch with you. I've actually had Nick O'Roch on the, so before this was an out-nail podcast, it was like a Facebook Live we started off on. So I had Nick O'Roch on the Facebook Live a couple of times when I most get him back on the podcast version. Had Nicko's down as well. Yeah. Yeah, he's a good man as well. It's once you have Nicko's down. It's like after that, you're talking to someone else and they're kind of like, Oh, I'm not too sure. And you're like, yeah, we had Steven Roach on the podcast. Oh, fuck. You had Steven Roach. Okay. Okay. It doesn't get much bigger than that. It's still hard for Nicko, isn't it? Like as cool a career as he's had. He's worn leader's jerseys in the well-down one stage, it's a big shout-out to step out of. Almost an impossible shout-out to step out of. I think he gets that too. There's not too many guys that have done what his dad has done in the history of cycling. So I think he obviously respects his dad for what he achieved in his career, but he also didn't want to be in the shadows of his dad. also wanted to make him his own legacy, you know, which to try and outdo his dad was going to be very difficult, I think he understands that. But yeah, I think he obviously just enjoys cycling for what it is and we have a lot of fun on the bike and... So who's in your train? Help each other. We have, yeah, basically almost every day it's me, Richie Porte and Nico Roach. That's our sort of little trio. And then we have other guys that sort of come with us every now and again. But we sort of, we like to train the same. We like to train exactly nine o'clock every morning. We're leaving from the same point, pretty much climbing all day, riding hard all day, which a lot of guys don't like. So, yeah, I think guys sort of pick and choose when they ride with us based on if they have a hard day or not, because they know how hard we train. How does it work if you've, are you kind of talking to each other and saying, you know what, I have two 20-minute threshold intervals today? Or are you just meeting up and then figuring out on the road? We sort of, we message each other the night before, sort of based on hours, and then we see if it's going to work between us guys. If we have, if one has a, excuse me, a rest date, then obviously it doesn't work out. But normally we try and even a little bit of just our training to fit together. If someone has a little bit more hours, then we'll do a little bit more, someone's a little bit less, and we do a little bit less. We're a little bit flexible with that sort of stuff, but with the efforts and stuff, say, for example, I had some efforts, I would just say to the boys, I got efforts today, I'll just go up the climb, do my efforts, and if I get to the top before you guys, I'll turn around and come back down. So we sort of keep it a little bit freestyle and not take it to too serious that go up and down the same climb all the time. We try and make a loop with the efforts too, which keeps it fresh. How into the data are you? Are you kind of constantly tracking? Or are you just getting into the coaching hand that are off and don't care? I'm actually pretty bad with it, to be honest. I really hate power meters and all these different stuff. I just like to run up. I can feel if I'm getting better. I've had my same coach for 10 years now. So. Do you have like a understanding of like CTL, ATL these type things? Are you just like, you know, I fucking leave that off today? No, my coach is really good with that stuff. He knows it all. And he knows I don't like getting into it. It probably puts more stress on me than like negative stress than positive stress. I just like to train honestly and then press end at the end of my training and the file goes off to my coach and he analyzes it with others and I message him that night, how was it? And he says, yeah, good or bad. And then I say, okay, what have I got tomorrow? It's funny, isn't it? Some of the guys are so into it and they're so anal about the data and then some of the guys are just pure. like give me the session, I'll do the session, and I don't wanna know anything else about the session after that. Yeah, exactly. You came into the sport with a lot of pressure on you, I suppose, when I say into the sport, like into the senior level, like talk to me about winning the world under 23 championships, what's that like? When was that? 2009, 2010, around then? 2010, yeah. Yeah, I think for a young Aussie that's just signed professional, I think two weeks before I won the world. So I was already sort of in the clouds by that point signing professional with Robank, one of the biggest world tour teams out there and then going to Australia and I was privileged obviously to have my last book, Jambiachipps, as 9 to 23 in Australia and then to go out and win it It was, I can say a dream come true.

4.For young Aussie, it doesn't really get much better than that, to be…

For young Aussie, it doesn't really get much better than that, to be honest. And yeah, I think I stepped into the scene quite well. I think I won my first stage in Tuna Under, my first World Tour race, which it all started quite well from there, which was not unexpected, but I was a little bit shocked. I was like, wow, okay, I can race against the best guys in the world, not just the out of 23s, but it was a bit of a reality check a couple months after that when you really got into the European racing with the weather and the big pellet songs and then it was a bit of reality check to be honest. Because that's what I hear time and again, chatting to the guys, you know, or chatting to Mike Woz a few weeks ago and he's saying, that's the big difference when you get into the world It's like, yeah, you can be under 23 world champion, but when you step into the world tour, there's an under 23 world champion from the last 10 generations are all in the world tour together. And it's like almost the best of the best, the best, the best, crammed in together. That's a bit of a kick in the tee, eye opener when you mix that with sort of the Belgian weather and all that type of stuff. I had my wife on a couple of weeks ago. Oh, beautiful. Funny fucker. Oh yeah. He's just wiled. Like he even had the the wife beat or vest and all on camera. I don't know if you listened to the podcast that we did with Mitch Docker about the Juro. I did. Yeah. So I actually had Mitch on last week. Oh really? Yeah. Mitch is a good lad as well. Yeah. Yeah. That was so much fun. I was actually talking to Mitch on the podcast before we did the podcast and he was saying, yeah, this is what we're going to do. And he was saying rattling off the writers that he's going to interview and actually said, Mitch, you know what, we're missing in this podcast, is Whitey. Whitey was like the key guy of that whole duo that made it so special. So I said to Mitch, get Whitey on the interview and he was like, no, I didn't even think of that. Like, got like full like so energetic and excited and Paul went straight away and messaged Whitey and yeah, Whitey was obviously mad about the idea too. Because who was your Italian teammate that he was the Italian champ in 2014? Ivan's center of media. Yes. So why he absolutely went through him on the podcast. He said he's like fucking arrogant Italian. He's like he couldn't even ride through on the team time trial. And then he gets to the finish line and he's spelt and shit to the media that spent off took the jersey. And we didn't let him roll across the finish line forced. It wasn't even strong enough to take a poll. Yep, that's why. That's why. You know what you get with him? The next day most of it's special for you. I know I was on the finish line in Dublin. I don't know how I'd snag some VIP tickets at a finish area. There was free drink there, so I'm going to be honest. I can't remember very much at all finish. But you took the jersey that day. Yeah, unfortunately. Were you like eight or nine or something the bunch of printings with Ola? Yeah, I really messed up that sprint. I was actually it was sort of mixed feelings because obviously it's massive to wear the pink jersey and the jiro, but I felt like taking it off my teammate when I didn't Achieve what I wanted to do that day. I felt bad So I was sort of on the podium like cool. I got the pink jersey, but I would have rather than swain keep the jersey until I could really really proved that I deserved it rather than him. So for me, it was mixed feelings, honestly. Yeah, I suppose it's nice to keep it in the team. But yeah, no, I totally get it. Because you guys are so dominant as well in the team time trial. He was, yeah. Swain was. Was he being strong enough? Thank you. Oh, I love doing triple T's. And I normally like to be the strongest. But no, he was next level. I can honestly say that without, I love the guys, yeah, one of my best friends, but I'm not blowing wind up his assets, honestly truth. Like, we all tried to step off his wheel to come next to him. I don't know if you watched the final a few hundred meters there. And he just, we stepped down the wind and we went backwards. And he did like a one and a half K pool for the last part. He was unbelievable. Mitch Docker was talking about gone, He went up to Andorra and done a bit of gravel riding with him a couple of months ago. And he said, it's the most insanely stupid ride he's ever done in his life. He said they rode like 20% climb for like fucking errors on gravel. It's like never going to end. And he's just like, this is like ridiculously stupid. And then he said, just when you think it's going to end, you have to shoulder your bike and you're carrying it for like another seven or eight K up the thing.

5.He's just like, Spain, like this is fucking stupid, like this needs…

And he's just like, Spain, like this is fucking stupid, like this needs to end. But he said they were all getting so tick out of him because it was just like, there's a hard ride, there's a stupid ride. And then he said, this was just like a ride where you wanted to punch someone. I can imagine Mitch too. I have enough stories where I've pissed Mitch off and said the wrong things at the wrong times. And he can really flare up, press the right buttons and leave him. But I can imagine. How come you decided to leave Orica? I obviously wanted to fight for the Green Jersey. And in that team, it wasn't possible at that time. I also wanted to try the Flemish classics with the other ends. Why do you think it wasn't possible to fight for Green and with Orica? We had a lot of guys that could go for individual stages themselves. I think the team also went for the green with Matthew Goss a couple of years before I wanted to try. And yeah, it didn't work out. He didn't win the jersey. So they said it was a massive sacrifice for a big risk of having nothing at the end of the tour, which I understand that. It's obviously it's their choice. If we have a lot of guys that can go for individual stages, then yeah, That's if that's what they want to do that's what they want to do and I have to accept that but when I got the offer from Sunweb that I could go for go for a green jersey and try for the add-ins and the Flemish For me it was a no brainer and It's like look in a oracle Look like just you know, even you look at that video uptown funk video when you heard dance Like it looked like you guys had so much fun in oracle Is that difficult to leave behind? Because it's a very safe culture for Aussie blog as well. We are in our intermission phase. The regular listeners will know what this is all about. This is the time where we just all take a little collective exhale. We relax, we appreciate what has just gone and look forward to what has gone. Yeah, we just take that little time, we stick on the kettle, we just re-calibrate, refocus ourselves for the second half of it, and it's the time that I use to remind you about the heartbeat of this podcast. It's our Patreon, it's patreon.com. Or slash Anthony, underscore a waltch, I'm gonna put the link in the description. If you're enjoying this podcast and you're thinking to yourself, this podcast deserves to serve a wife. This is the way to vote. This is how we make sure... shows we enjoy, shows we listen to survive, because don't leave it to somebody else, because honestly it's a real thing that good shows are disappearing because they aren't financially valuable. The podcast is an experiment and it's an experiment I'm hoping we can extend. So please head on over to Patreon and put a link in the show notes and show your gratitude, boy, boy in the coffee or a beer and you'll say, you know what? Moikko Bling Matus. He's a good skin. I'm enjoying this podcast and if I want to hear more of your ramblings down the road, that is your way to do it. Okay, the intermission is over. The lights are getting dimmed in the cinema. It's time to go back to Bling. We did, yeah. I think I was actually looking back at those videos during this lockdown period, sort of like missing that sort of fun family vibe. I was, yeah, just looking back at the videos of our green edge and the amazing times that we had and that Dan Jones got it all on camera too, which made it even more special to look back at. And I think at the time, maybe we all took it a little bit for granted, what we're actually doing. I can only speak for myself, but I think I did. I took a program that not every team is going to be like this. You're not going to get a massive group of Aussies around you at a training camp at a race, just having fun filming videos, sort of taking the piss and just having fun, like not taking cycling too serious. And yeah, that was hard environment to leave, obviously. But I also had to think about what I wanted to achieve in cycling and, yeah, at that time it just wasn't fitting together. But it's nearly a case of, I heard a good saying a while ago, it's like, don't cry because it's over, smile because it happened. It kind of feels like that. Exactly. I think we still have the memories, we still have all the videos which, yeah, I think we look back at now and just, yeah. Some of it I didn't say in the viral, the AC, DC one all night long, like that went so viral, it was unbelievable. That one was cool. That was the tour wasn't it? I think it was the tour one yeah. Yeah, I mean it started in Corsico. Yeah, Michael, I tell you out of every writer in the Peloton, you've won me more money in the bookies than anyone else. You are a Valverde I'd say. Because I suppose it's the nature of of your such a versatile rider that if anyone's listened to this podcast, Michael Matches in each way bet and fucking any race you're in nearly is a good bet.

6.Each way pays five deep

Each way pays five deep. Um, you know, you can kind of pick the races and say, Oh, son, Rainbow five deep. Hard to say. I'm not the only five deep here. You've been on the podium in San Ramo, but I guess that's naturely athlete. That's bittersweet. Yeah. Is it a race you can win? Based on capabilities, yes. But the problem with that race is you never really know what's going to happen. It seems so simple. It should be so simple. It's one climb of I think 4K that basically decides the race, whether a breakaway is going to stay away or it's going to be a bunch sprint, which a lot of it comes down to the wind. Actually, the wind plays a massive factor in San Remo. I'm the client. Believe it. Yeah. If it's headwind, then guys can't really go too far. If it's tailwind, the climb's really fast. So the sprinters can also get over much easier. So it's one that's just playing with me. That's I think also probably Saigon can say the same. He's always been on the podium, but still never won it. Yeah. It's like a world championship, the Milan San Remo. It's really one of those lottery races that you can be the strongest guy there and never win it. It seems quite formulaic. Like I know even I love watching San Remo, but if I'm out doing a training ride, I'm not coming back to really watch the last 150k San Remo because you kind of know what's going to happen. Supresso is going to be a bit of a softener, and you don't need to be watching from Poshio onwards. Yeah, it's got the historic background for it and everything. It's a beautiful race, but yeah, like you say, basically pretty much turned it on from 10 K to go and you'll have basically the whole race. How much time are you spending, uh, wrecking stuff? Or do you, you've just ridden it a couple of times now and you don't bother doing recon on races like that anymore? Um, send Remo, I probably don't really bother, um, especially because it's just down the road. So it's pretty straightforward too, nothing really changes. But the Flemish and the Ardennes is more important to recon, because I don't ride those roads every day. And I'm not too familiar with especially the Flemish. So the Ardennes, I know quite well, because I lived in that area for two years. So I know them all pretty well, but the Flemish is still new to me. But it seems like as kind of a impartial cycling fan looking on, you're right on the cusp of exploding and having absolute oil or ice winds and going full sag on on it. But you're just not getting the rub of the green. Like you're just having, was it broken shoulder 2018, the Paris-Nays crash 2019 and now this the choice with COVID, it's just going to come together. Like it's coming together, obviously, and you're winning big races, but it seems like you could just go and win 10, 15 races in a season if it came together properly for you. Yeah, it's, honestly, it's frustrating. I have a really late start to the year, which I try and start with a bang. I try and come in and just form straight away. I don't like these preparation races and preparing, using other races to prepare for big races. For me, if I go to a race, I want to win straight away. So yeah, the last two years, it's been difficult to bounce back after such a long off season to really build up and be ready to race at that first race. And to then go and crash straight away is, yeah, a massive kick in the nuts, honestly. You sort of start to think, what am I doing wrong? What have I done wrong to deserve this bad luck? But yeah, like you say, when things come together and I don't have bad luck, amazing things are possible. Like you're winning, I don't wanna say what E is because it's obviously not what E is. What E is, trivializing, it's the amount of hard work and sacrifices that's going on behind the scenes. But when you look at your dominance, you're hiding those Canadian races. And that's on the back of the bad look. So you're not as Michael Machu is 100%. You must be thinking in your head, if I can get a go to run at this, if I can hit Flanders, if I can hit San Ram, or you can put your name on some pretty big trophies that's gonna stand the test of time. Yeah, it's nice to think like that. But I just haven't had that luck, I guess, but I'm not giving up, that's for sure. Yeah, I still believe that I can achieve those big results. But I think I've also put a massive stress on them, which for me doesn't really necessarily make me better. I noticed with the results that I've gotten in the big races that I've done, I wasn't stressed. I just went out and did it and that's when I was sick. That's when I sort of become, I guess like you said, dominant in the ones that I do when it's when I'm not stressed. I just take it as another black race and try and black out all the other noise around and just enjoy it for what it is. It's kind of like I used to play soccer and I wasn't a striker but you know always play with a striker and he got on a gold route and then something had just happened like one of going off his chain or something and then he just got on this insane run.

7.He just needed that little bit of look, the little bit of rubber…

He just needed that little bit of look, the little bit of rubber degree and even you look at Saigon, everyone forgets that Saigon got a boy away for a long time, he was second in everything and that's kind of glossed over a little bit now, every one just thinks of Saigon as this dominant figure at the moment but like do you see Saigon is beatable in the San Rey multi-bracers straight up where he was fast as him not more genetic it looks like I think it would be it'll be quite close I think Saigon is he's a massive fighter he never gives up you can see the way he races he just He'll die across that finish line, which I have full respect for. It's amazing watching him race and competing against him is amazing. But on pure speed, I think through maybe a harder race, I might be a little bit quicker, but I think on a pure flat sprint, bun sprint-wise, he might have that little bit of edge on me. But I think I get over climbs maybe a little bit better. So I think any sort of discipline that we do, it'll be a very close head to head match if it was just us two in the race. So are you looking at the Tour de France and looking at sort of a tougher parkour and you're rubbing your hands kind of going, I can get over somebody as one side again, maybe you can't? I think majority of the clients he can get over, I have to accept that he will be there and maybe is not there then great. Unless you're crushes, Cavendish against the barriers or some shit like that. Exactly, that can happen. It's sort of, it doesn't happen because it was a horrible thing to see. But. That was a crazy sag. It's not, I've completely forgotten about that. Like what was the consensus in the Peloton? Like did Tagan deserve to be de-cued for that? Or was it a be harsh? I think everyone has their own opinion, to be honest on the whole situation. What's your personal opinion? I don't think he should have been disqualified. I think, like I was saying, maybe one minute ago, Saagansa fighter and he will make sure he's, if he can't win it, he's gonna make sure he can do everything to make sure he'll get as close as possible. And yeah, shit happens. It's a bunch sprint. Like, if it was a little bit left or right, maybe it wouldn't have happened. So to disqualify someone from the biggest race in the world for that, I don't see it happening. I think it was a wrong decision. And Sagin being such a influential figure in the Tour de France, I think it was a massive thing for it to happen, because no one sort of believed it would happen, but it would get disqualified from the Tour de France. And I think maybe it was more of like a thump on the table that, OK, we don't allow this stuff in bunch prints in the Tour de France, but you can't make someone crash on purpose, which is what they're trying to say. Well, that's it. Like Cavendish can always hit the brakes there. I know it's not in nature for a sprinter, but he doesn't have to go for that gap. Exactly. And I think Saigon was moving to the right anyway, and the gap was closing. So yeah, it's a little bit both of their, not fault, but they were both in it that caused the crash. And yeah, to disqualify from the race, I think it was a wrong decision. Are you married? Yes. How does your wife feel about the bunch of prints? Yeah, she doesn't like them. She doesn't watch, she doesn't watch the finishes of a bunch of prints. It's, yeah, it's, I think watching on TV is probably more scary than it is in real life. Like when I watch Prince Prince myself, I'm thinking, holy shit, this is nuts. But maybe it's just my tunnel vision when I'm in the race, I don't think about those other things. Because I think if you do start to think about the things that could happen, you're not going to be there anymore. You're not going to be fighting for the win. You'll be second row. I know I came up in Ireland racing against Bennett a lot and it's been crazy just watching his progress through the sport from kind of you know scrapping him winning some stages against Vivianne into a Britney when he was in on post to you know he's would you say he's one of the fastest guys in the world now is he deep fastest guy in the world? Yeah he must be up there to be honest he sees like he's just boomed the last what was it two or three years now I think he also lives here in Monaco now actually saw him today on the bike actually rode past him. But yeah, it's pretty impressive to see what he's done the last couple of years. Like you say, I didn't really know who he was a couple of years ago. What was that team that was in the blue and black jersey? I think I raced him in the Vuelta and he was fast but I think he was carrying a little bit too much weight now is to drop that weight off and now he's very fast. How much emphasis do you put on diet?

8.Me personally? Yeah. I think for me the more I focus on the diet is…

Me personally? Yeah. I think for me the more I focus on the diet is the more I struggle with it to be honest. I think if I just train hard and eat well I'm good. I don't need to be weighing my food or any of that stuff. It doesn't help me. Do you record your calories? No. I look at my calories on the bike and I sort of gauge how much I should eat based on the day after and everything like that. But yeah, I wouldn't say I'm a fanatic about it now. Take us through a day. So what training and wrote you do it this morning. I was meant to do three, but we ended up doing two because it started pissing down rain. Soft focus. Rochi's meant to be Irish. What story would him? Nico wasn't with us this time. He was in Italy at the moment, but it was me and Rochi. He actually had a rest day and we started out together and I was pretty much had three hours cruzy and it just started torrential raining here in Monaco and I was saying, done. I'm not going to do an easy ride in the rain. Thank you. I see you. I need your new white kit as well. Yeah, first day in white kit, I didn't want to wreck it. So I wanted to make sure I could wear it again tomorrow without it being destroyed. So on a typical endurance day for you, like say a three four hour ride, what are you starting at nine? Are you what are you having for breakfast? Well, time you getting up out. What are you day in the life? Michael Machus type Question here. Yeah, well, we have a baby now. So that's sort of very a little bit and she just had to get up She's just over two now. So she's very Independent already. She knows what she wants, but yeah, she wakes up around things seven. So normally if my wife is Awakes you'll get up with her and play with her for a bit until I wake up around eight o'clock and then and make them breakfast and make my own breakfast. Normally my breakfast of choice is wheat peaks with a nice cappuccino. So I got myself a nice rocket espresso machine. Oh yeah, nice. So that's a nice thing for the morning. But yeah, wheat peaks is my breakfast of choice at the moment. I go through different phases. But. Dan, are you eating on the bike? Are you guys stopping for a coffee? We would like to, but yeah, with this whole COVID situation, we've chose not to. If we do stop somewhere, it's more like in a bakery or something just to grab a small thing to eat and then continue on the bike. But I normally take some food with me enough to get through, just in case we decide not to stop. So what are you energy barriers or are you banana states? At the moment we have we have namid sport as our sponsor the team for nutrition and it's it's quite new to me we just started with the sponsor this year so all the food is quite nice and new and we have a lot of different varieties of things to eat from the team at the moment. So I'm enjoying that, which is really nice. Are you staying away from gels? I've actually gotten a bit into gels now. I never used to eat gels and training, but it's pretty sick. Yeah, I don't know if I'm changing as a bike rider now. What does that mean? It means you're trying it too hard. You should be just It's a cruise you down to coast. Maybe that's why I'm not hungry after training anymore, because I'm eating much more on the bike now. But I'm also dead after training these days. Like this afternoon, I did two hours, and I laid on the couch and my wife's like, what's wrong with you? I'm like, I don't know, I'm just tired. Normally I'm like super active in the afternoon. You're gonna need to stop training so hard. It's not a good thing. What's your, would you have a protocol you get in from training, are you strict on that? Like you hitting recovery drinks straight away? Yeah, if I can remember, yeah, normally it depends. If I have a sort of protein meal, then I won't bother. If I can do the food really fast and have some protein, I'm ill, I normally don't take a shake because I build muscle really fast. So if I have too much protein, I build muscle too quickly and it's just extra weight that I don't need. So if I know it's going to be a while until I'm going to eat, I'll take a shake and then try and eat like half an hour after that. But if the food's ready to go, then I'll just go straight into the food. Your wife did a cooking? Most of the time, yeah. I've actually started cooking myself. I don't know if you've seen my Instagram, but I follow this hexas performance on Instagram page. I have to flick on your Instagram today before we jump down. weird that I know what you had for lunch is not fucking we're in a weird world. I know you had case of D is for lunch. See that was dinner last night. Oh, is that dinner last night? Sorry. Yeah, that was on this hexas performance Instagram page.

9.It's really good. You should check it out

It's really good. You should check it out. So the guy he creates these like protein based meals that are really easy to make and I'm not a chef and I feel like a master chef when I hit this stuff. I think I cooked this the second time in the last few weeks and I think each time you sort of get better and better, you know, but the different stuff that he puts on this page is amazing. You feel like you're like a certain master chef. It has like from breakfast to dinner, sort of meals that you can create yourself and it's really easy to make and doesn't take much time. you hang out with the boys like Richie Borton, Nico, do you hang out with them off the bike? Yeah, a lot actually. Probably more Nico because he doesn't have a family. So we do a lot of stuff together, but Richie has one baby and another one on the way, so he's pretty busy after training these days. Is it hard to have a life off the bike there, or are you totally focused on trying? Yeah, it's definitely different because we're So we're also focused on trying to achieve those big goals. And there's definitely no parties or dinners or anything like that. It's more like meet for a coffee in the afternoon or a cheeky ice cream at the gelateria or something like that or just a walk. Tell me you don't talk about silicon. Shit. That's the last thing I talked about. I don't know anything about cycling, so not much to talk about other than myself. This is what I've noticed. The paradox of it, if you chat to a category forward dude. All you want to talk about is cycling. If you chat to a world or a guy, he doesn't want to talk about cycling at all. Do you want to talk about ice creams and girls and cars and? It's like, I guess it's our life, isn't it? You want to just sort of separate yourself from it when you go meet people and yeah, sort of not think about it, to be honest. It's like the postman doesn't talk about the post. I don't know. My postman speaks French and I can't talk to him. So I don't know. You're striking me as a lad who likes riding a bike. I always see you fucking about on the mountain bike. Is that just adventure style or is that prescribed by the culture or are you just going off rogue? I think I've just always been on bikes my whole life. I had my first motorbike when I was like three. I guess it's been my whole life. anything with wheels basically from bikes to cars. So to be honest, I don't really know anything else. It's just, it's me, everything, every day after school, I would ride my bike to school, back from school. I'd spend the whole afternoon with my mates building jumps and race to BMX, race downhill. What else did I do? Race motocross. So everything basically to do with two wheels I've tried. You take your stay in cycling when you finish up? Have you talked about life after cycling? Obviously we've talked about my wife. Her father is actually Shimano dealer in East Europe. So we probably will have something to do with cycling. Exactly what we don't really know yet, if we take over the company from him or what we do. I would like to stay in some sort of way in cycling. I have a really good relationship with Shimano. So even testing their products or doing things for them would be awesome. But yeah, not too much now. But it's hard, isn't it? I've buddies that even the last few years say they've devoted four or five years to trying to make world tour in a fall and maybe a couple of steps short. And there are guys who are 22, 23 years old and then they're quit and cycling, but they're almost at the stage development of like a 17, 18 year old because they're like, well, what the fuck do I do now? I don't know anything else. I've just been riding a bike for four or five years. Like obviously you guys have a bit more of a financial blankets, like a safety net at World Tour where you can kind of probably chill out for a few years. Is it a stressor or is it something guys talk about the paloton? Yeah, a little bit. I think a lot of the guys I sort of talked to and sort of in the middle of their career. So we don't really talk about it too much but yeah it is obviously a topic that we need to think about but it's sort of scary to think about because you have such high goals and expectations that you want to achieve during your career to start thinking about after is like, ah shit, is my career sort of getting to be done? Or yeah, to be honest, I don't really want to think about it too much because yeah, Nicko's got to be taken about it. He's yeah, I guess he's more into it at the moment than I am, but if you see he's a social media and everything needs to kill on it, so he'll be fine. Yeah, I got to get Nicko on, I got him on, tell him I'm going to get him up, he's coming on, talk about life after cycling and how he didn't get out of his dad's shadow.

10.Before I let you go, something that I noticed, it was kind of odd…

Before I let you go, something that I noticed, it was kind of odd about your training. You got to sell Africa a bit to train. What's the deal with that? Where's that good? I don't know. I've really spent on the podcast last week and the BH Burgos rider and Willie, obviously from South Africa. But I don't know. I'm just always scared to say, oh, frick it seems like it's a place you need to have an armed escort to go, Roger Boyk, or is that just me being crazy? I think it also depends where you go. I wouldn't go cycling downtown Johannesburg. But where we go into the mountains is the people there are lovely. Like if you meet them on the street, they're like, it's like they've seen God, you know, like it. But them is amazing just to see like guys with nice shiny bikes and really amazing looking kits and fit looking and I don't know where we go. I've been going for a couple of years now. I went there with Green Edge I think three times and I've been there now twice with Sunworks. So it's like a jungle but it's just yeah it's such massive freedom to go there and just have something different. Where about Stikka also, Africa? It's called Crystal Springs, the place, but exactly where it is. I can't really tell you because I don't know. But it's talking the mountains somewhere and the freedom is amazing. I'm going to check it out. Do you know why they might think you're like God? A lot of people listening to this won't see the video because it's only audio, but I can actually see the video and Michael's just about to run off and get a haircut because he has a bit of a Jesus-style bar in a corner at the moment. Yeah, I'm actually late from my hairbrush, so she's going to kill me. But yeah, I wish you could see my hair. It's definitely... If you wanted to clean the floor, this is what you would use. Michael, I'm going to let you go and get your hair called. Before I let you go, what's the best place people can follow you and send your random social media messages? I guess probably my Instagram page is probably my best place to reach me. I'm actually trying to do it more professionally these next couple of weeks. So hopefully I can get on to it a bit better. So send them loads of feedback folks. Yeah. Michael, it's been a pleasure. I'll be down to South of France. I'm going to catch you for a ride soon. Awesome. Looking forward to it. Dix A, never meet your heroes, but I really enjoyed that one. Michael Bling Machios. There's not many names in the sport that are bigger than Bling and I really thank you, Michael for giving up his time for that podcast interview. It's for me, it's testament to how far the podcast has actually come that we have bling on the podcast, what a legend and I'm really hoping we get to see bling just nailing some more green jerseys into the front of the secretly cheering for bling in the bling versus Saigon battle. Going forward. Before I head off I want you to check out something I'm calling it the eight-week challenge, the eight-week challenge. It's my vehicle for taking all the stuff I'm learning from these world tour guys. off-munchatin to these guys before the show, after the show, sometimes for errors. It's my vehicle for taking all that knowledge, marrying it with almost a decade of coaching experience in A1 and delivering a coaching product. That's pretty cutting-edge to you guys. It's called the 8-week challenge. It's phenomenal. It's an intro to coaching, so whether you're getting started or whether you're an experienced rider, there's something in that 8-week challenge for you. I'm gonna pop the link to that in the show notes as well. And that's a wrap guys, don't forget check that Patreon, Patreon's what keeps this coming. Vote with your dollar. If you want the short podcast to continue, vote with your dollar. Okay, that's it folks. I will chat to you all next week where you guessed it. We've another legendary guest. Chat to you all then.