Hello you beautiful cycling fans, welcome back to another Vuelta…
Hello you beautiful cycling fans, welcome back to another Vuelta special. We've only got until Sunday to go on our Vuelta daily podcast and then we're back to our regular schedule broadcasting, back to our deeper dive podcasts on everything cycling, health, longevity, biohacks and everything in between. But today's stage 17, it was scheduled to be a bit of a transition stage but like we've commented before about this Vuelta it's not a three-week grand tour it's a series of one-day races and today was no different it was actually chaos trying to figure out what was even going on at the stage at one point so let's jump right into it and unpack what was going on on this chaotic stage 17 but before I jump in a quick note about our show sponsor missing piece missing piece.o.e missing piece have been with us all sort of well to their head into the last week with us and it's been brilliant. I still haven't got the nerve to use my beautiful custom chopping boards yet but I have ordered a couple more for gifts for friends so if you're struggling for birthday ideas, if you're struggling for Christmas ideas and a very free ideas, if you're struggling to get a gift that has a little bit of personal touch and meaning and sentimentality to it it's perfect to it it's picture frames or chop boards or any other other offerings it's definitely worth checking out you can check them out of missing piece.ie and I'm going to pop the link in the description and show notes. Let's try and unpack this one stage 17. So I'm going to be completely honest. I missed the stage. It was that fast and it was so far ahead of schedule that I actually missed the stage. It was a sprint stage so I'd plan to come home and catch like the last 30 kilometers or so. But the time I got in and of the text off a buddy saying, you know, it's over. I was like, what? How's it over? And it's over because they averaged for the stage, the entire stage, where's the average speed? They averaged 50.6 kilometers an hour for 219 kilometers. It took them four hours and 20 minutes to really 219 kilometers. Get your head around that. That is insane. So I have to hang on and wait until EuroSport, the EuroSport player is class. I love it. It's like you're on the man Netflix for cycling. So I So I had to wait until they posted, which was a couple of hours after the stage. They posted up the full stage and I got the fast forward through and kind of watched the best bits and things. But yeah, when I turned, I even fast forward and I, because I didn't know the chaos that was going on. So as I was fast forward and I was planning on fast forward and the 30 K to go and then I got the 30 K to go and I was like, what the hell is going on here? So I had to rewind it to about 70 K to go and then I had to rewind the forward and I was like, what is going on? There's groups everywhere. So it was a cross tail went from most of the day and that's what happened. That's why the race went to absolute pieces and went from cross tail to tail to cross tail to tail all day long and is absolutely tore the peloton to pieces. So we had a big break up front with a lot of good rotors in there. We had cantana in the break. We had James Knox in the break. We'd Sam Bennett in the break. Philip Gilbert in the break. At one point we had seven of the eight quick-step riders in the break so that tells you these boys can ride across wins. I heard Gilbert was talking after a race and he was saying that he was about 15 back he seemed, James Knox was wheeled to and he just said to the guys on the radio go full on the left hand side of the road because he wanted to give so he wanted to open up the road and give other people a chance to roll through because that's going to maintain the speed even higher. And if you're in a crosswind, even if they go to the left and they only let, you know, they're going to let maybe 15, 20 guys in. And then after that, it's going to get very, very difficult because there's not enough space on the road. So rotors have to go single foil behind. So Gilbert, it's discipline technique and it's a little bit of class, riding them crosswinds. And it's a lot of practice, which quick step have an abundance. So they took the race today and they took it and they grabbed this and they imposed themselves on the race and it was brilliant TV to watch. Anyone who's a young rider out there and is looking to know how you ride a crosswind, you're looking to know about team tactics, go back and rewatch today's stage, watch how quick-step took the race from the very start all the way to the line.
Was poetry to watch. Brilliant and Philip Schuller, I've always been…
It was poetry to watch. Brilliant and Philip Schuller, I've always been one of my favourite writers of you know the last decade and when he came back to Quick Step after a mediocre spell of BMC, he sort of felt like he was pittering out of BMC towards the end and then when he came back to Quick Step it completely reinvigorated his career so you wouldn't bet against him for the world title in Leeds at the end of this month. Unbelievable Stoffey James Knox from Quick Step one of the big beneficiaries today, he was in the break again and he moved up after today's stage to 8 overall. I think what caught a lot of people out today was that everybody expected it to be an easy day. It was meant to be a transition day before tomorrow because tomorrow is another hard day and it just turned out that it was one of the hardest days in the entire race. And you know what, people are going to feel that tomorrow. Like Gillabear spoke after the race, he said he was in a 54-11 and he was spinning down at 110 RPM. Like that takes its toll. You just have to see Reuters coming across the line like Bennett coming across the line and he's like he's visibly shaken from the day. It was on all day and it was on both groups because at one point we had movie star on the front of the break pushing for Cantana because he's leapfrogging way up the GC. They went out to six minutes at one point. Cantana's moving way up the GC so they're riding full gas. but then movie star cunningly decided behind to whack it on a little roiser and to guess Primo's Roglic isolated, so they whack it on a roiser behind and all Roglicious teammates got dropped. So Roglicious on his own and in a smaller group I say maybe 15 left in the peloton, Roglicious on his own and to be honest he was saved by Astana because we had movie star, obviously they knocked it off then after all Roglicious teammates were gone but no one would have taking a rope out of that group. You know, we had the people that were going to lose most were Roglich, Pogakar, and luckily for luckily for the M guys, Estana were there with Lopez and they took up most of the road and then they limited the damage. The race finished out with Sam Benas heading in as the absolute heading shoulders favors. But it was a difficult last 2k, 3 turns in the last 2k, slightly uphill, then turning it to a headwind at about 750 to go. And it was a difficult run in, but Benest absolutely out now fast man in the group, especially after a quick step lost, Jakobsson out of the group earlier on. There was a lot of pressure on Benest, and he just couldn't cover everything. Steve Barr went and Steve Barr went hard and he went deep and any of us responded to try and get him back but they weren't really fully closing him down and it looked like it was hesitating at about 700 to go and Bennett blinked forced. Bennett launched and he launched big. He went to use that big kick is to gap everyone and he did gap everyone caught Steve Barr, rounded Steve Barr but he took it up from 650 to go and it was turning into that headwind. He said, let him go, let him have that gap because he knew he couldn't match him absolute power but he knew he was good on those long long hard finishes so it was effectively tree sprints if you look at it in the last 2k and tree turns and it was difficult and technical and Jillberry is very good at them. Jillberry knew he could just leave Benest and hang out there and he waited he waited he waited and he caught him at about 150 200 to go. He knew Benest fate was sealed when he looked around to see where Jillberry was. Jillberry caught him, used him as a spring board kicked again and easy win in the end for as well. It wasn't an easy win, it was a very very difficult win but he won it well in the end. So Gilbert went in and out on the stage from Benus from Cavania again quick steps of the two on the top three and that is Gilbert's second stage of Welter. It's his seventh career of Welter stage and this 11th Grand Tour stage overall. The man is a machine, the man is an industry and himself We're lucky to still be able to watch such a great rider race and he doesn't seem to be slowing down with age which is phenomenal but I think Somewhere a big drama of the day happened as soon as we crossed that finish line Because as soon as Gilbert crosses that finish line actually more accurately as soon as Quintana crosses that finish line the stopwatch starts and the stopwatch keeps going from the brake to the bunch and and the stopwatch rolls and it rolls and it rolls and in the end we have them giving up five minutes and thirty five seconds from the break to the bunch so this is meant that Rogliches lead on GC.
Cantana's back in play. Cantana's second on GC now 224 of Averdi's at…
Cantana's back in play. Cantana's second on GC now 224 of Averdi's at 228 and Torre Place. Pogacar's dropped down to 342 but we wanted a big movers a guy like a lot of James Knox has moved up to 8 at 8.0 3 like a phenomenal ride from him yeah like like Rog that's just been caught sleeping today and you're involved in caught sleeping badly now you know some might ask the question should have been vaverly in the break or should have been as opposed to Quintana because then now movies start sitting on the race lead it's a fair criticism and it's one I'm gonna answer in one second after I tell you about our second show sponsor. ClickFunnels. ClickFunnels is a beautiful piece of software. It's a piece of software designed for people who are not so good at technology like myself and you know typically I've been needing a full-time web developer if I needed a new page for a training camp, if I needed a new page for you know Today we're giving away actually I'll tell you guys about that in a minute how to get a free mug out of this So all your hardship listening to me. It's not in vain because you're getting a free mug, but building a web page for something like that It normally was a task list for me going to a developer and a snag list back to the developer re-snagged back to developer It's just so easy to build it with ClickFunnels. It's it's just it's a beauty. It's so easy to use I can build pages on seconds. I can save my templates and just re-edit them. Once you get your style down, you can even pay someone on 99 designs to get your style down to build it out for you. But you don't even need to do it because the templates are so aesthetically pleasing they have on there. I love it. It's, you know, I said I wouldn't push sponsors on the podcast, which I didn't use and wasn't passionate about. This is one that I use and I'm passionate about. So there you go. Hooked up 14 day free trial for all you guys. And I'm going to put the link in the show notes on the description down below. It's well worth checking out, jump on the trial and jump on, they have this 30 day challenge which is super cool, jump on that, the 30 day challenge will revolutionise your business, it's amazing stuff. I'm going to pop the link in the show notes down below, go and check that out. So if we had Valverde in the break today, we have a completely different GC, but this is what happens when you're, you know, we're their armchair critic. The reality of getting in the break or not getting on the break, it was nicely summed up by James Knox after. He said it's absolutely everyone for themselves. You have to go full gas, everyone for themselves and then when you get there you can look around and assess and see who's in the break. And then you can start playing the tactics and you can start thinking okay, today we'll look after Knox, today we'll look after Quintana. You need to have the legs to get to the break. You can't teleport someone into a break and if I've heard it wasn't in the right place when Quickstep hit it. There's no coming back from that. Quickstep are full gas committed so you know, Quintana dropping out of that move where he's well positioned and Valverde isn't. It does absolutely nothing for the team. You know you got to be reactionary with that stuff. You can have a battle plan but you know what's the old saying about a plan never so I was contacted with the enemy. You can have your battle plan but then you need to respond. Quickstep had their battle plan. They executed force. They executed better and then you're in a position where you've Quintana in the break you've Valverde behind in a group. you know you you've two horses back in the race now it's a win for a movie start today but I've no doubt that I've barely sitting back in the group and for a point he was seeding no doubt we shouldn't have seen him up there but you know that's the way to go he rumbles sometimes we've pogger and Lopez still toyed close for us white jersey nothing really changed and that has both missed the break Quintana was just on a real good day but you never know what you're gonna get from Quintana, like Oliveria's teammate, some of the Robathro and he was saying, Quintana, you never know, some days is good and some days is not. At the moment they think that Oliveria is the strongest. You just don't know what Quintana is going to show up sometimes. Once that crosswind went, if you weren't in the right spot, Quintana was on a good day. I think the beauty of the crosswind is the crosswind, it forces honesty.
We've seen a lot of when that gap went out to six minutes It was…
So we've seen a lot of when that gap went out to six minutes It was obvious it wasn't gonna come back into much Because firstly you hear Gilbert talking about it's been out at 53 11 at 110 RPM Like if he's down that in the break like, you know, it's not it's not quite terminal velocity. I don't get too nerdy on it There's only so fast a boy can go, you know If you're in a tailwind spend the 54 11 at 110 RPM like with a six minute lead like what gap how do you think the gaps gonna come down like it's just not possible for the gap to come down it doesn't matter what's our cohesion there is behind there's only so fast a boy can go and then another beauty across wins is forces that cohesion because it forces cooperation among the front group because when you're in the crosswind if you haven't written in a crosswind it's easier to really true than it is to sit on so if you're riding true in the crosswind you're getting shelter every time you're riding through but you're also contributing to the pace going up. So even a rider who's protected like Quintana with a bunch of teammates in the front group he's gonna ride through because it's easier and saving him energy but the boy product of him riding through is extra speed for that group and it's pulling it clear all the time. So yeah it was just obvious that it wasn't wasn't coming back. Very very enjoyable stage to watch. It's meant going into tomorrow we have another specs got because we have to movie star in the top tree interest and interest and stuff. Something I wanted to kick out to you guys I was gonna hold off and do it and next week but I said look sure I have it done so I promised I was walking on something around farming positive training habits so I've been looking at I suppose the last few months just engineering and hacking different areas of my life and trying to use different techniques, not always even from sport, sometimes from business, I'm pulling them into seeing how I can build a better system for an athlete, how we can build better habits, better patterns, better science, all this type of stuff. But one of the areas across our clients, when we look at who achieved their goals and who didn't achieve their goals compliance and sessions is a big one. Those who train go a long way, those who who miss sessions, they don't always go as far. They know they don't go as far. There's no point in sugar coating that. So compliance and actually getting out the door is a big thing. So I looked at for our clients and for myself, how do you form positive habits? So this is a brilliant one. If you're only gonna point open and listen to a little bit of the podcast and actually pay active attention, put your phone down, turn off the TV, drop the book, stop guys and out the window and pay a little bit of attention to this one. There's three phases to the habit. You have your catalyst or trigger. That's the item we begin to associate with the habit. If the second part, if the actual habit and if the toward part or reward. So let me unpack those for a second. So what I'm suggesting to do is I'm giving away a free mug. So it's a roadman mug, it's a coffee mug. So for me, there's just three real benefits to use not as the mug. Firstly, we're gonna try and need to be a trigger. You could try and anything to be a trigger, but we're gonna use the mug. Secondly, I like the mug because it's portable. I can bring away a train and camp. I can bring away from wife or weekend. But secondly, the mug is roadman. So for me, that's a motivational. For girls out there, I'm running up a little bit of a definition. It's a gender neutral. I mean, someone who just gets something done without fuss that they're not looking for compliments. They're not doing stuff for social status. They're just going about their job. They're getting a done of a dedication and a work ethic about them. And that's from me what a roadman is. So the idea of having roadman on the cup as well as motivational for me. And then towards a coffee cups, or coffee and coffee and all those inherent benefits. So we have that tree prong trigger system. And once we pick up the cup, then what we need to do is we need to get out and we go training. And after time, we begin to associate the picking up the cup and drinking the coffee with go on training. And how we build that into a habit is the towards the edge of it. We build it into a habit giving ourselves a reward after we finish training.
Very soon we pick up the cup and we see the reward we're going to get…
So very soon we pick up the cup and we see the reward we're going to get and we crave that reward so the training becomes automatic. And at a time when we have decision making fatigue, we're making so many decisions from what information to take into what Netflix shows to choose, what efforts to listen to cutting out something that we know is beneficial to us, cutting out the internal dialogue. around that is very powerful. It becomes automatic. It's like brushing your teeth in the morning. Have you ever woke up tired and thought I'll skip brushing my teeth this morning? It just never happens and the reason it never happens is you've successfully built a habit-forming loop. So we're training. We can do this as well. We can hack our own subconscious into go on training automatically. So we'll pick up this cup, you'll head out the door and you'll receive your reward. You can play around with your own reward like you're now you're welcome to steal mine as well. What I like to do from my reward is I protect 15 to 20 minutes as soon as I get in the door. You know life it's chaotic for me as much as it is for you but you know I have a lot of distractions when I get in there's emails piling up there's you know errands to be run there's people to be called back to pile to WhatsApp messages, you know, no grandiosity bell me, I'm no busy or new guys are. But it's full on when you get back in sometimes. So what I like to do is I protect that 15th 20 minute period when I get in and I go to sort of a couch hooked up in my trying room, I go there and I have my recovery drink, I put on my recovery boots and I listen to my favourite vinyl. I'll throw on you know a Beatles record or something on vinyl and I'll listen to that and just sit back and chill and that completes the habit forming loop for me. If this isn't gonna happen overnight you're not gonna pick up the mug the first time and say to yourself okay sweet I want to go train them so I'm motivated but over time you know if you do it ten times twenty times thirty times it gets more powerful as you do it until you get to the point it's like pushing a piano up a hill you're pushing pushing pushing pushing pushing then you get to the top and it's just it's momentum downhill you'll get to a point when it's automatic it'll get easier but it will get to a point where it's completely automatic. So I have a limited number of these mugs. I want to make this happen for you guys. So I'm going to pop a link in the show notes down below if you want to grab one of these roadman mugs. Excuse me, a bit of a cough. I don't have a lot of these roadman mugs. So if you want one, do click the link and act fast on it. I'm giving them away, no charge but I am asking that you cover a postage and pocket on it. So if you cover the postage and pocket, I'm going to send the mug out to you for no charge. So that links down below. Okay, I think that's about us wrapped for today. Tomorrow we're heading to another big stage, potentially the Soysof stage with Rog L'Chon Krax today. We're heading into stage 18, we have four category one climbs, then we've got a little downhill, and then we've got a little bit of a kicker to the finish if I was building a Valverde stage. This looks like a Valverde stage for me. Lopez, Because again, he's explosive and he's trying to take that time back on Poggerkor or Pugacha, depending on what pronunciation you're going with. He's explosive and he's looking to take that time back in Hoyjer as he classifications so it could be a launchpad for him as well. Like after today, you know, literally anything can happen in this Vuelta. So yeah, stay tuned and I'm looking forward to bringing you the post-race analysis. Until then, ride safe. Talk to you soon.