1.Welcome and Patreon appeal

Roadman at stage 18 of the Jiroletalia, 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 changes? That is the question, and this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Anthony Walsh, and welcome to the Roadman Podcast. Roadman, it is stage 18 of the Jiro de Talia. Welcome back to another Roadman cycling podcast. I've really enjoyed bringing the podcast ultra to Jiro. I'm always a little bit hesitant to commit to the daily podcast for the grand tours. But then when I do, it gives an extra layer of interest and understanding to the stage for me. Because often the temptation with the stages to have it on the background and passively be watching it, but honestly how many of us are good enough or skilled enough that we can give our attention passively to something and still get full enjoyment from it. So when I'm forced to slow down and focus on it and understand what's going on, the nuances, the tactics, it's definitely a lot more enjoyable. And that's what the Daily Podcast has done. Today we are stage 18 from Roberto to Stradela and it's the longest stage in the year of the Talia at 231km. We definitely had some interesting stuff going on today's stage including a breakaway win, Nicholas Roach almost taking the win and Sagam getting fined for intimidation. Before I jump into all that I want to tell you about Patreon and I know the Patreon draw might beat it every day but I'm making a go as a full time podcaster. And it's not just me, it's There's a lot of other small podcasters out there. And what's happening in the podcast space at the moment, there's big companies and big businesses coming into the podcast space, specifically the soil and space. They're coming in with big budgets and they're pushing smaller podcasters out. And smaller podcasters have such an important role because they have often an unbiased unfiltered viewpoint that we don't get from these mainstream companies. So the way to keep the podcast rolling, the way to keep me full time on it, It's just to make a small donation over on Patreon. That way we can stay neutral, we can stay independent, and we can keep bringing you this content that hopefully you're enjoying. So make a small donation. I'm talking the price of a beer once a month over on patreon.com forward slash Anthony underscore watch if you can afford to do so. And if you can't afford to do so, you know what, don't worry about it because your fellow listeners are sound and they've made a donation on your behalf. So, we have actually, I want to tell you a short story, a limerick, an anecdote, if you will. I was in the cafe this morning, I'm still in Jirona, and I was in Jan Frodeno's cafe, the triathlete, and he's been basically the best long course triathlete for the last decade. He owns a cafe here in Jirona, and I was sitting there this morning, and I was working on my laptop, doing a bit of roadman work, And there was an old boy who took a seat just beside me and he seemed that I had the cycling on the background and we got chatting and basically he I'd say he was late 70s early 80s and he loves cycling. Absolutely loves it. It's his life's passion. He used to ride, he used to race kind of semi professionally from what I could get and he can't cycle anymore because I held complications and he comes to Gerona as many times as he can each year because he said he loves the surround themselves with cyclists. He loves to bother cycling, he loves being near the cyclists, he loves spotting the pros even though he can't cycle. So I was kind of on the fence where I was gonna go riding there not today.

2.Riding for those who can't

I had a lot of stuff to get through and I left the calf and I had a quiet moment and I taught about him and I was like you know what I'm definitely on riding because what would he give to ride today? He would give absolutely anything to ride and you know I'm quite into stoic philosophy and spend a lot of my spare time reading stoic philosophers and from Seneca to Marcus Aurelius and there's one particular meditation which came to mind that it's a last time meditation and we are all transient beings we're not around forever and so there will be a last time that we get to do everything he's already experienced the last time he's ever gonna ride a bike but for me I can still do it so I got out today and I enjoyed it like it was the last time I ever wrote a bike and I made a little Instagram stories video and explained why I was riding today and I said you know I'm riding for those who can't and I'm gonna try put together a little bit of a streak. I was chatting to my buddy Ed Veal who I've had on the podcast and he has this idea where he does the real deal streak so you know maybe I'm gonna do something similar we're gonna see how many back-to-back days I'm gonna put together on the bike. Maybe it's gonna be five who knows but we're gonna aim high. Let's see if I get a 100 back-to-back days on the bike. It's a long time since I've ridden more than four or five days a week. I'd say it's a few years and so it's full time since I've ridden more than four or five days a week. So it's definitely going to be a challenge, but I encourage you to join the challenge with me. So it's right for those who can't. It's tag me on for an Instagram on it. It's roman.cytlan. And yeah, let's just ride for those who can't because that last time meditation is powerful. There will be a last time we get to ride and at the moment, Thankfully, all of us can still ride, so let's cherish that. Okay, that was a little bit of a random segue for a Stage 18 podcast. And luckily that story happened because fuck all happened in the Europe stage today. It was a snooze fest. Look, when I say snooze fest, I can see from the analytics on podcast listenerships and friends who have podcasts that when a breakaway goes to the finish, people are generally disinterested. We love to see the GC battle, but unfortunately the GC battle was never going to happen today because it was a flat long transition stage before another high mountain stage. So the break did go. We did actually get one talking point which was Saigon getting fined. So Saigon was deducted 50 UCI points and fined 100,000 Swiss francs, fucking no one knows how much that is, for intimidation and proper conduct against other riders. to the stage 18 jury communique. Saigon said after the stage that today was an important stage and he was not to lose points for the Chiclamino jersey. We kept under control. The sprinters were in close points classification and held on to the Chiclamino. On Friday and Saturday we have two hard mountain stages. Saigon has basically sealed the Chiclamino to sprint to the jersey today because a break went up the road and took all the points non-Tretland riders so he has an almost insurmountable lead in the Chiclamino jersey. This is the part that if you haven't raced, you maybe won't understand. There's a lot of politics and peacock and goes on in the bunch. Intimidation, as Saigon's, you know, he's after been cited for intimidation and improper conduct. At a point when everyone's happy with the composition of the break up the road, you will get senior Reuters or respected Reuters or, you know, maybe bullies who will say, That's it.

3.Sagan fine and Giro dropouts

We're happy with that composition. Racing stops now and they will try and shut the road. They will try and intimidate riders into not chasing the breakaway. And this happens. It's a part of Boycrais and it's a part of Boycrais and that almost every level. And look, I don't know what you can do about it. I don't think you want to do anything about it because the try and tackle it is to try and sterilize sport. It happens at every single sport. There's a peacock and there's There's an intimidation, there's a hierarchy. There's only one rule in the jungle. When the line is hungry, the line eats. And that was Sagin today, but he got slapped on the wrist for a... We did 22-royter break today, including human motorbike, Remej Kavanya, Berto Betiol and Nicholas Roch. Coming into the finish, it split. Kavanya went on the attack. It didn't look like anyone was gonna get the human motorbike from Quickstep. Back it looked like, you know, what Remko Evernpold dropping out of the race yesterday. That's another thing I want to talk about in a second. You melt the Reuters dropping out of the race. You know, I'm not even gonna park in a second. I'm gonna talk about it now. The fucking amount of Reuters dropping out of the euro. You know, we have the sprinters by Caleb Yoon with some bullshit fatigue excuse, Tim Malik who dropped out cause of fatigue and then wins a race a one day race like three days after, like your fatigue surely cured up pretty fast everybody. like there's no respect for the race. There's no like getting true. If somebody has nothing to race for, they're immediately able to race and we'd, Remko getting pulled out yesterday, Chacones pulled out a bunch more aroiders. And I don't have the answer right now. I'm just basically using this to get it off my chest as I always do. But if you have an idea how we can incentivize a roiders to go to distance, to finish the race, I'm all ears, let me know. I'd be really interested to know, me up on an Instagram DM with that one. I have the Instagram DMs open. I do try and get back to every single DM. I get a good view. So if I don't get back to you super fast, I will get back to you eventually. Just be patient young Jedi. So Kavanya on the attack, Betio went after him, Roach went after Betio, Roach caught Betio, then he's dropped by Betio. Betio catches Kavanya on the final climb and it was actually really interesting because he caught him a few hundred meters in in the top of the climb, he caught a set on him because Betty Ols in the red after catching Kavania, but instead he uses his head and he thinks if Kavania gets onto the flash, I'm not going to drop him on the flash and then it's a roll of the dice and sprint. So even though Betty Ols in the red, he gives it another dig because you never know how bad your opponent is. He gives it one last dig and Kavania absolutely perks it. He drops anchor and Betty Olgos clear for a famous victory for EF and he got to showcase that beautiful Rafa kit that they're rocking and it was actually nice because EF continued to do this each year. The EF jersey is obviously pink and to avoid a clash with the Maglia Rosa. They bring out a new kit for the 0 each year. We had that wild sort of cartoon skateboard one last year like this year's one better. We gotta remember how much work Betteogh has done for Hugh Cardi and the mountains. He wasn't sure to stick in his whole rope on him and bring him up yesterday when he cracked. So it's super impressive that he won today and then he's back in action tomorrow helping Hugh Karate to maybe have a pop as I try to take some time back on the GC.

4.Stage recap and stage 19 preview

We will see. Roach was in chase but he was caught in the closing kilometres by Simone Consone from Cofras and finished toward and his teammate Nicholas Arndt almost caught him on the line to knock him off to podium. Borderline photo finished So that was also interesting what I made their team dinner interest in that night But I guess he had to sprint because DSM are leading the team classification which no one talks about and They're pushing for that one So that leaves us pretty much not pretty much it leaves us Absolutely unchanged on GC because the peloton rolled in some 20 minutes down had an active recovery day Just chilling out relaxing of boy binar shooting some beeball They were yeah tears cruising along Felipe Ogana Do you want a bit of endurance Roy in everyone in his wheel? We have a gun banal and astonishing 77 hours of boy-gracing. Oh My lord some people don't do that in a year 77 hours of boy-gracing and he's leading the jiro d'etalia from Damiano Crusoe from Bahrain victorious still unconfirmed if victorious is named after it sponsors horse Nobody let me know the answer to that one. Simon Yates is our tree, 23. We have Vlasov who's coming apart the seams from Russia at 6.0. Tree, QK, another man who's coming apart at 6.0. And we roll on Barday in sixth place. So that's an interesting one. Tomorrow we are back into the mountains. We are stage 19 finishing up the Maria. It's 176 kilometers and we've got a couple of climbs in it. Like the Passo del Colmos 8.7 kilometers at 5.5 percent and then we have the Altamarii averages 8.7 percent and it reaches you know 9 percent for a kilometer, 9.4 percent for another kilometer, 10.4 for another kilometer, then almost 12 for kilometer eight. and the last two kilometers are over 10%. So this is sure to shake up the GC tomorrow. We've seen the first cracks in Bernal the other day even though Ineos were super super strong. So we could potentially see more cracks in Bernal if we do. No one by our Yates had any cajonas to today and he's a good bit back on GC. We'd love to see Caruso going on the attack but I think he spent so much time playing second fiddle and you know he doesn't even know what it means to be a later to be a winner and that's no disrespect to him because it's a second in the year of the Talia haven't stepped up from Kilo Tenant for Landa to tame later and second is a remarkable result but I don't think he has what it takes he hasn't got the minerals to go for a win in my opinion we will see we will see the road will reveal our old men I'm gonna chat here tomorrow Right, safe, and I'll chat to you then. 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, training plans, regardless of what your level is. There's Masters Beginner Advanced, there's Mail 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 roadmansoycling.com forward slash 14 day or check out the link in the bio that roadmansoycling.com slash 14 day.