Today we're gonna talk with Jay Vine
Today we're gonna talk with Jay Vine. 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 longevity? That is the question. This podcast will give you the answers. My name is Anthony Welch and welcome to the Roadman Podcast. Roadman, today welcome back to the podcast, Mr. J. Voyne of Alpason Fenix. We spoke to J a couple of months ago at this stage and J was the Zwift Academy winner who got a one year world tour contract with Alpason Fenix. So we decided in the course of that conversation to catch up and do a little bit of a life as a Neo Pro section with J every now and then. So this is our first installment, catching back up with Jay. His debut race was the Tour de Torqui and it went absolutely incredible. Couldn't have went any better. Mammoth roid on the Queen's stage from Jay and was one of the most entertaining and so much finishes we've seen in a race in a long, long time. So it's great to catch up with Jay again. But before I jump into that conversation, let me just remind you about Patreon. Because Patreon's the way we fund the podcast. Patreon is what keeps it ticking over week after week. Their funds all are back end costs and allows us to expand the podcast behind the scene. With huge plans for the podcast, including, and I'm happy to announce, I know, I've been a bit sporadic this week with a podcast that has been a big taper going on. I'm tapering for the Jiro because the Jiro starts tomorrow and I'm back daily for the Jiro Natalia checking in each stage and I'm sure we'll have some Reuters join us along the way for their feedback on the stages. So I'm really excited for the Jiro podcast and to help keep this sort of content comment, please head on over to Patreon. The link is in the bio. It's patreon.com forward slash Anthony underscore Walsh. So without any further ado, let's welcome back to the Rob Man podcast, Mr. J vine. Yeah, thanks. I think that would be great to be back. J have joined the elite club of guests that have been on more than once. I think there's you, Tyler Hamilton, Pete Stetner, and I think that's it. I think there are the only two Pete's we've had. Oh, right. So it's just like a new thing to get repeats on, or am I just one of those lucky two that you invite back? You know what, guests are normally born as fuck, so we just don't want to stare from them again. I'm sorry, well, I know. Now, honestly, it's just one of those things where, you know, there's so many interesting stories out there that I typically haven't reached back out. And then on the other end, you know, people are busy as shit a lot of time. And I know the myth about how busy pro-cycle services, how busy you actually are, is probably very different. Yeah, it's so weird, like, you're either on and your maxed out training, recovering, and just trying to crawl your way through life, or you're doing it easy going into a race, and you're struggling to keep yourself occupied, because every other week of the year, you're trying to maximize all your training, and then going into a race, it's bought off the gas, trying to recover, and freshen up for it, though it's so bizarre. And I know when I'm like, even at amateur level, doing a stage race for me, I get after the stage race, I call it the post stage race blues, where you're used to being, you know, in the break, just crowds, there's motorbikes around you, there's car horns going all day long, motorbikes trying to pass you. And then you get back home the following day and you're just like sitting at the kitchen table, your girlfriend's gone to work, you're just drinking coffee on your own. There's no car horns. like, this is weird, there's no one here to carry me bags up the stairs. I have to do my own laundry. Do you get that kind of balls off of it as well? But it's a little bit of a low after stage race. Not really like the, if I get back in Amateurs, yes, but after Turkey, I didn't really get that because, I mean, it was, I was a stalker. It was probably close to 16 hours to get back here. So the day after the stage race wasn't really a come down. But then because Turkey was probably the longest I've ever raced for, I was okay to have a couple of days just chilling. I think there was a couple of other races on TV as well. So watching more bike racing and just getting my vibes off the TV a little bit.
Said, my struggle, my big struggle was going into the race because in…
Like I said, my struggle, my big struggle was going into the race because in Australia, our racing is only about three days. We're talking 400, 500 TSS, the three days, maybe four stages. You don't need a favor. You just rest day, the day before, after doing your week of training and you're going the race, whereas this knowing that it was going to be 30 hours, I actually had to take the foot off the gas for three or four days before the race. And you're just waking up at 7.30 in the morning going, cool, I've only got 90 minutes. Okay. What do I do for the other 12 hours that I'm awake for? So what are you doing? Are you just chilling out watching Netflix, hanging out with your girlfriends? Yeah, yeah, so I guess, yeah, trying to walk around explore a little bit, but there's only so much you can explore in a three kilometre radius around your apartment because we don't own a car. And I'm not, I'm not one of those people who sees the value in going and buying a 12 euro bowl of porridge with some flowers on it from a local cafe. You're talking about Lofobriq at her, aren't you? I'm not the name of any name to that, but yeah, I'm not that kind of guy either. So yeah, I'm, I know, I, there's a couple of cafes around here, you know, it's like a buck 50 for an Americano. Now I'm quite happy just to sit out the front of a cafe in the sun for two hours just talking. So stuff like that, I guess. Where's the cool cafe in Jerome at the moment? Where are you drinking your coffee? Let's have urna over in the square across the river from where I am. That's where I've been going. It's just across from my bank as well. I have to get this. Can I start check? But yeah, they cheat. They do good sandwiches as well, like six euros for a half, a six inch sandwich. I actually might get over in the next couple of weeks because we've some weird travel restrictions, but Spain isn't on the list. I might get over it and just do the COVID test before I leave, COVID test when I land. Well, you know, that's the thing. Spain desperately, desperately wants money from up north. So they're just like, oh, yeah, please come. Any time you want to come to Spain, come and spend your euros in Spain. talking about Tour de Turkey, what is a TSS requirement for something like that? Yeah, so I think I ran it out, so let's just ignore the 70K curmese on day one stitch up. But the actual week, the seven days from Monday to Sunday, that was, I think it was 13 under TFS. It's pretty big. But when you're taking the context that stage four, so that stage one, two and three, they were wanting me to really put myself out there and try and help the team as much as I could in the sprint. So that was at the start of the race, controlling moves, making sure that 10 guys don't go up the road. So for the first hour I was doing crazy anaerobic surges. The middle part of these bike races is really active recovery. And then the final 10 through to try get to 3Ks, but 10 through to 4Ks. I was there at the front of our train trying to hold position as much as I could. And what's the threshold? Is the threshold there as a hire? Yes, when you get push into the wind it's high in the threshold. So I mean they're doing probably 105% going into that three or four Ks and it just gets gradually higher and higher and higher. I think there's a clip of me on stage three and I did like 600 watts to 90 seconds. And I was like in the saddle, out of the saddle, in the saddle, out of the saddle. And the guy next to me, he's probably like an extra 20 kilos, just sitting in the saddle just grinding it out, I'm just like, this is not fair. Like, can we just put this on a bit of a grind? And what's it speaking of getting knocked out in the wind? What was the reaction in the peloton to, you know, I'm sure you're going to shake the to tag really fast after performances like Turkey, but essentially in the force race, you're the Zwift guy going in. Yeah, I mean, I think to me, no one had any idea at all. So I was just another one of the Albus and guys, which was good, like having that jersey, it shows respect, like it has respect in the Peloton. I think we basically have a world to a type of respect in a Peloton like that.
There was a couple of bardy only guys that kept trying to take my…
But yeah, I mean, there was a couple of bardy only guys that kept trying to take my wheel every chance they could. But yeah, apart from that, it was really fine. What's the dynamic like in the Palatani? Not what's in I had on a, he's an Irish lad and he writes for the American Conti Team. Is it a wildlife, something that's like... Yeah, yep. Yeah, so he was in the break on the Queen stage, which we're going to get into in a minute, were you a great right? But he was just saying, obviously the Conti teams just get treated like shit in the pallet on him. He's just getting chopped up and abused basically for the day. Yeah, yeah, I must admit, yeah, the world tour team do take control of the pallet on. And if you're in the way of a group of three of them trying to get to the front to do their job, Yeah, they'll move you out of the way. Like the glamorous gentleman sport of cycling isn't really gentlemanly when you've got, yeah, angry Brits and Eastern European abusing you to get out of the way. Was it weird for you? Because obviously you missed training camps and stuff with COVID restrictions with the guys. So was it like, what's that dynamic like when you get to meet the guys? Yeah, it was pretty weird. It was weird in a whole bunch of different ways, not only not knowing any of the guys going in, but also they, obviously, I think they heard that I had good numbers and all that sort of stuff. But to top it off, we lost three guys all on the same day on stage four. So we're down to four guys. If we've got Yaps of Philosyn who's been on the verge of winning a stage three days in a row and all of a sudden they're getting told, okay, we're going to arrive for Jay now on stage five. It was a weird dynamic, but I think they fall on, you know, and to the DX's credit, it's full on trusted and what's been told to them. And when, okay, well, this is our job. riding for Jay regardless if he's a bit shorter or not. So they're just full out. Like I've a manager from my amateur team at the moment and he used to be director for the Aqua Blue Sports Pro Conti team. But he'd always say to me like, there's a word that comes before cycling and that's professional. It's professional cycling. The dudes are just straight up professional. They're told to do, you're looking after Jay. They just look after Jay even though they don't know you. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. I mean, yes, the Philistom was the last person to drop me off with them eight to go. Like, I'm pretty sure Mark Cavendish failed. It was 20 Ks to go. So yeah, like it was pretty surreal. Five days in, 800 kilometers with these guys. To from day one, my big job of the day was, all right, I'm gonna take jackets and gloves back to the car, which I ended up dropping one of them. Yeah, as well. Sorry, yes. Like from that to all right, we're writing for you to get a good place thing on this climb. That was pretty awesome. That's amazing progression. And so it's progression in the trust of the team as well. And so it's you know, one stage race. Have you got a sense of like anyone on the team? You're mates with already? Who's the Joker on the team? Or is it too early to tell on a dynamics? Yeah, I think it's a bit too early. Like the and we also lost three guys as well. So And there's only one repeat rider coming to my next race. So it's going to be, I think you get to joke a bit more and you get to do all that sort of stuff on training camps. I mean between racing your bike, which you're not really joking about because it's basically a controlled crash all the way from start to finish, like in the peloton. like there is a bump and a possible crash somewhere in the peloton every minute. Like not even getting there is someone trying to avoid a wheel, avoid a cross-up every minute. You just don't see it on the overhead on the cameras. So outside of that, outside of not getting de-dawn on the side of the road, outside of, you know, getting knotted on, getting water bottles of the bui stuff coming back through the bunch sweat. You don't have much time to joke and then getting instructions over your head there. There's not much time to joke there. You then from the finish of the race jamming down some food, going rushing off to the hotel to eat some food after that.
You've sort of got about 90 minutes after the stage finishes to dour,…
You've sort of got about 90 minutes after the stage finishes to dour, relax, just deep breath a little bit so you're not really wanting to chat. Then you're into massage and then 20 minutes after you finish your massage, you're into dinner and you're in a big room full of all cyclists. I'm just trying to struggle soon down there next. And then straight up to dinner we're talking 7.38 o'clock, you're into a team meeting for 30-40 it and then you sort of done for the day and wanting to go to bed. So this outside of probably 30 minutes, 40 minutes, three days in the bus waiting for things to happen. You're not, you're not really, you're not having a big political conversations with your team at that restaurant. Yeah, I get that. It's a strange sort of groundhog day that definitely a lot of people don't see. Let's talk about the Queen's stage because obviously you'd been on the podcast always keeping an extra oil for you on the Queen's stage. I didn't know the result and I was actually, you know what, some prick texted me that listened to the podcast and he said, unbelievable from Jay Voyan. I was like, you prick. I was about to sit down to watch the highlights. At that point, I didn't know if you were in the days break or if you won the stage. or obviously I was like picking you out and you were you held your position brilliantly into the base of climb. The boys I think they dropped you off 5, 6k around that if I remember it. Yeah I think just the 7k to the bridge and that was when you asked the left name. But yeah I was like 20 at that point so it was like really. Yeah and you seem to be able to hold your position super well like I'm totally in awe that and I think a lot of people listen to the podcast that that may be having race, that's a bit they missed. They think you just, you know, you're right into the bottom of the climb easy and you're hold your position. But that's super difficult to do and it's stressful. Well, yeah, like we, so I think boy came out from the finish. There was a left hand turn through a town and the town was literally, we went from big highway, you know, three relays with versions on both sides into this town where it basically went single file over the Belgians, they call them Plinkers, but they're just aiding stones. So we went into that and if you went too far on either side, you'd basically ride into drainage gutters with trash all through them. So you basically went to maybe three cyclists across. So we had to fight all the way into that. So about three kilometres before that point, that we're talking 43tales out, we're fighting for position. We then go through the town and then we're on a barely two lane road for the next 27 kilometres to that 7k to go point or that 12k to go point and we're fighting the entire time. Like yes, we've lost 30, 40 riders that weren't trying to compete for the stage win anyway. But still 100 riders there all fighting for the first 30 positions and Back that what that we close to 30 to 40 minutes It's just full of not pedaling 400 what not pedaling 400 what Coupled with you've got two or three guys all around you trying to chop you not on purpose but just slowly moving through the bunch and if you're not moving forward you're going backwards. I love that say, you know, it's just about the say that it's so true in those situations. Like mentally before you've even got to the point where right I just have to do my best what in for the next 30 minutes, against these other professionals, you're already mentally screwed. It's fucking stressful and it's dangerous and it's months of work and then you're on a noise fetch of I could hit the deck here and break my collarbone. But it gets even better and it happened in this race. You've then also got a factor in the fact that you can't be dropping any rubbish or bottles. So if you need that last gel, you're going to make sure that it goes back in that pocket. If you try and give it to a car and they drop it, you get 30 seconds taken off you, which is what happens to one of the X guys. I think charming, no, not charming. The guy that over took jamming from you and X on that stage, asked off of Gel rapper, it got dropped by one of of the motorbike, he was penalised 30 seconds. So after all that stress, all that effort, 30 seconds, he'd end up going from fifth place on the day to two.
It's like the UCI, like, there's, you know, we've got the crazy,…
Well, it's like the UCI, like, there's, you know, we've got the crazy, like, downhill sprint finish, as we say in Tour de Paulen last year, we've got, you know, inequality between men and women in terms of pay, we've got, you know, all these number of different dangerous practices going on and they go after like littering and the super talk. Like I've literally never seen a crash from the super talk and it's obviously a problem with bigger problems you can bring like they sweep up after a lot of the races as well. Plus you can get to a boy or a great of all jail rappers. Yeah, and I mean like I'm not for littering but at this point are you worried about riders safety in which a like a guy flying to go a water bottle on top of already full pocket whilst they're on a two lane road with potholes crashing and bringing down half the bunch because he didn't want to throw a bottle on lose 30 seconds like is that worth it for the UCI or do they want to do I don't know put a a letter zone in the last 10k, just dump your shit on the side of the road will pay an extra, will take 5% off the prize money, which they already do. They already take the full 10 off the prize money. We'll take out a 5% off the prize money, it's no skin off down those, and pay someone to go through and clean up all that rubbish in the last 10k. They're so out of touch with it. It's like someone running the UCI and coming up with these rules has never, like, raced, never, you know, talked to anyone who's in a race, they're just so out of touch with. They're like rules that when I have conversations with buddies who are sort of into cycling, but you know, they've done one or two sporty, so they watch this sort of France and they don't really know about cycling. It's the sort of suggestions they have around rules and you're like, well, that would never work. And I'm not even going, I don't even want to have this conversation because it's so stupid and you don't even know what you're talking about. It feels like that's where decisions are coming from. It's just bizarre. Yeah, for sure. The guy is in the breakaway on the front of the bunch, pulling a turn, on the front of the breakaway into a flander, pulling a turn, and he gets his bottle and just drops it right next to him, into the path the rider's behind him. Yes, that's unsafe, and there should be a penalty there. But there should be some discretion. I thought that was the good thing about cycling. There was discretion in the rules, but it seems like they've decided to put discretion where it favors some riders, but this favor with others. But even the way, was it Lierz Carapaz, was the Squalified from? Yeah, yeah. So he's retrospectively the Squalified, but the Squalified, I'm there, he still impacted the race. Like he's up the road, people have to organize and chase him, and any of us now have a tactical advantage with someone up the road. And then you disqualify him after the race. It doesn't even make sense. Yeah, and it also goes back to, well, he was disqualified for doing that in that race, retrospectively. So we've already established that we can retrospectively disqualify people. He was doing that in Catalunya. So do we disqualify him from the Catalunya results? He was also who won Catalunya? it was a one, two, three for Eon. He expected the rate in Catalonia. Do we disqualify their results? Like where do we draw the line, Lucy? And yeah. It's too nuanced when you start disqualifying people retrospectively because they're like, you know, national alliances, you know, you're getting a benefit because I had, you know, a fellow country man up the road. Like, you know, it's, you know, it's, it's not getting too textured. It's ridiculous. It's all right. You got to pull them out with a race right there, or else just have a rule that makes them for a consensus. Anyway, let's talk about the answer. I think with the littering, surely it can't be too hard for a rule to be put in that within two years nutrition companies need to bring out biodegradable wrappers. This is my problem. That would be a good formula. Formula one, bring in rules that in two years time we're going down an engine side to be more economical. Why not do that? And it makes sense because it's now put the problem into it's becoming an industry problem where there's a monetary incentive to solve the problem, where now we start to innovate because we know this rule is coming along rather than just throwing it a blind eye to it.
Because you're not going to disqualify guys in amateur races
Because you're not going to disqualify guys in amateur races. And, you know, I know pro was the shop window, but if we're talking big data numbers was, you know, there's hundreds of races all over every country, every weekend. Littering is a bigger problem at amateur level, but if you have, you're not going to stop amateur littering because there's not enough eyeballs to disqualify them. So if you have the bio-degradable products, bottles, it's just a much better solution. Absolutely. Let's talk about this finish for Queen's Stage in Torotoki because it was one of the classics from the last few years. Yeah. Turretorky has knocked out some crazy finishes. If you haven't seen it, go back and watch Ilio Koyes' finish in the Turretorky from a few years ago. I got a funny story about that. I actually just a real moment. So I'm at the stage five, stage six. So the evening of stage five, I had his win recommended to me by the YouTube algorithm. How does the YouTube algorithm know that I will be wanting to watch that? Anyway, I recommend me that finish. And I actually got to talk to him the following day about that. And yeah, funny thing, he's just like, I'll just like that would have been an amazing feeling. And he's just like, yeah, would have been better if I hadn't cried. Oh, like it was such an amazing, and I'm not sure which version you heard, but the Euro sport version, I think it's Carlton Kirby's Day on the commentary. And the idea of impartial commentary just went out the window, because in the last couple of hundred meters, He's like, go on my son, go on my son. And then he shouts at the end, cycling fans across the world rejoice. Yeah, yeah, not very impartial, but I don't think anyone would have been impartial in that moment. It was brilliant, but I don't think your one wasn't as good as that, but it was super, super exciting. It was like a three man slow bicycle race coming into the finish. Talk is true, you know, your sensations, what's going on in your head for those last UK? Oh, like it was a rollercoaster. So I'd researched, I'd watched, I think they did in 2017 and 2013 or something. So I'd watched those two climbs. And essentially, you just have to wait until the last three Ks. If you're there in the last three Ks, and you're able to follow moves, you've got a good chance of getting a good result. We also had the added factor that it a block headwind going into the finish. So I think it was, yeah, if you did the, the, it was a block headwind straight finish. So you, you'd go into the tailwind and get a massive run up into the next hairpin. But the moment you came around the hairpin, it was just warble. So when charming went with like 19, almost two days to go, and he attacked, I was, I think, I think I saw Cudos from a start. I go with him or try to go with him. I was like, I've, there's no way. If that is the, if that, if you can hold that to the finish line, there is no way that I'm ever gonna get any closer to that. So I just basically started riding my own race. And for 30 seconds there, I thought, right, the third, third is the best I can do? Fine, third is the best it's gonna be. but when you start slowly slowly bringing someone back obviously that glimmer of hope of shit we're 1,500 meters to go and I'm back to kudos now charming looks like he's bogging down a bit here there's no one else inside this could be opportunity here but whilst all that's going through your head you're lung screening, your legs are screaming and you're wanting to do more to get it to finish quicker but you're also not wanting to give your other riders an advantage by taking the win because it was a block head win at that point. So were you up in your power when he went away from you guys or did he fail? So we basically kept a consistent pace. So he completely faded towards the end there. So much so that I nearly equipped his wheel in the last 300 minutes. But yeah, it like block headwind. Like I think I was doing 400 watts on the wheel, which means it's probably 450 for those guys for me to be doing it on the front. So we're talking like nearly 6.5 watts per kilo at that point at altitude. So you can only do that for so long. Um, and the acceleration that he put in, you put himself into massive oxygen debt when he accelerated away. So he just rolled away at seven plus watts per kilogram to open that car.
Must have been over seven watts
Must have been over seven watts. Like just the speed that he kicked away at and then kicked again when crudoes was on his wheel, it was just incredible. And that's why I literally went, wow, if this is pro level, what am I going to get when I, like, what was this in life when Froome was attacking with two Ks to go in 2016? Like, it would have been ridiculous. Like, what is he attacking at? Like nine watts per kilo at the four minutes? And turns out, no, it's everyone's human. But are you looking forward now to pit yourself against, you know, with respect to the lads, they weren't the biggest names in the sport. Are you looking forward to pit yourself against, you know, the freedoms, the Remco, Evan Paul's, these guys? Well, see, I've looked at the numbers and it's not much higher that you can go from there so that to respect the guys, the level is pretty high. I'm actually looking forward to racing at a decent altitude. That's what cooks me on that climb. It was just so crazy that I think I did essentially did 5.6 watts per kilo, 22 minutes. By the end of it, I was just on the side of the road painting just could not function for about five to ten minutes. The following day, we did 22 minutes, 5.6 watts from like 20 meters all the way up to 9 100 meters, nose brief. Like the altitude had such an effect on that bike race that it just astounded. And is that something you're starting to think about will you look to get altitude exposure? Will you sleep in an altitude tense? Do you see a benefit in either of those? Oh, absolutely. Like, I've never done anything like that. So if we're going to be, look seriously, looking at doing altitude finishes, high mountain peaks, stuff like that, I'm definitely going to be investing in that sort of time. Like with Andorra just off the road as well, it should be, it's definitely on the cards. That plus, I mean, we're getting blood tests, basically every month. So we're watching the Hermanicrit levels and all that sort of stuff. So we've got a baseline now to work with. Just stuff that you never, you don't need in Australia because the highest we rate is probably 1300 meters. Yeah. Well, long ago. Yeah. Yeah. At what? Is that below sea level over there? So what's next, Argy? So next I'm off to root the soul. So that's definitely 18. The in Spain, so sort of a home race, I guess you could say. Yeah, there was a couple of real big hitters on the start line a couple of weeks ago. Val Verde was one of them. I think Paul Stang was also down, but since the start of this got published, they've been pulled off it. But Miguel Angel Lopez is the big one from Astana, so we'll see how he's going. But there's a bunch more world tour teams at this race. And world tour teams with world-class climbers. So it's going to be different to Turkey and the climbs once again aren't. They're not as decisive as Turkey. The thing we found out me and my coach, big time at Turkey, was, you know, climbs of 5% for 4K, climbs for 6%, 10% for 2Ks. In Australia, that's a hilly hard day where the bunch is strict. You've got five guys going to the finish line. At this level, sprinters, Mark Cavendish and Greipel are getting over that. This is the part that I'm always amazed with and there's races, you know, local enough to Ireland Especially in the UK. I just want the Lincoln Grand Prix and I remember Mark Cavenday It's a hard one day hilly race if you're at least amateur and you got a race Lincoln like it's a fucking hard day Yeah, I remember Cavenday gone to that a couple of years ago or if they have the national champs course on it Like you know a sprinter and he's winning like hard hilly one day races When you step down on a level, you just realise how good these guys are all around everything. Yeah, exactly. Like, it was weird. Andre Greipel actually did more of the turn than even Yasra did into the stage 5 final. He got said to work within like 6K, if or something. He's at least enormous. like 85 kilos, if the wattages are just insane. But they are just so tough, like some of the finishes. Where I'm playing around at the front with some of the asana guys trying to get a breakaway into one of the finishes, some of these clients are 2K that an average of 6% with some 8% of the finishes in it. And you see the sprinters, like Karen, gripal, their lead out guys like Zabal, big units, they're like 20, 20 wheels deep in the peloton.
They're still there. It's like, there is, you need 10% gradients, is…
And, and they're still there. It's like, there is, you need 10% gradients, is great, it's the theory at the amount of time to split bunches like this. It's got to be pretty cool to race for calf because it's most probably his last season. And, you know, for anyone who's a boy fan, whether you like his personality or you don't, been maybe the dominant sprinter of all time. So it's pretty cool to share the Peloton with him as, you know, is one song year. Yeah, absolutely. And I get to write this in twice so far. And the Lucy area is on the start list for that. Well, so, yeah, I mean, it's pretty cool actually being at the race as well, even though he beat Gaffa, being in Getty if win back to his winning ways at that rate. Like he is the guy that, the first rider that like stepped into my eyes back when I first started watching cycling, like at the tour, like he's, yeah, basically the guy that really captured my love of the sport back when I first started. And you know what, plus he's a super nice guy. I don't know him, but I met him. I was at a track camp at the National School at last year in New York, and Cav rocked in. And he's like, do you mind if I get some track time? But he was just, you know, other world tour writers are occasionally rocking and they'd kind of assume they were getting track time and they'd prioritize themselves and their rotations and stuff. Cav just so court, he is waiting his turn, like taking time to take pictures with everybody, chatting with everybody like he's one of the guys, just a super humble down to Earth guy for, you know, show rocks there. Yeah, yeah, absolutely. Like 150 wins. Second most wins at the sort of France, like that Almaras, I don't see it being equaled. Am I really? Like, pretty crazy. Jay, before I let you go, Jiro, start tomorrow. Any wild predictions for us? Well, I think, to be honest, I think Jai Gimli is getting a bit of a low, a bit low in the betting market. It's like, yes, last year's Euro is a bit funky, but I think he doesn't go into this Euro not protecting his GC like he did last year. Who else? I think I could be eating my words here. a Venapol is a bit high on the ons. Well, that's great. Yeah, I was going to say, how's he Rakes, I haven't seen him. This is his debut race after his crash. Like, if we're talking last year's era, without a doubt, one of the favourites going into the race. But for the first race back, like he's obviously not going there, not in form. Like, the Kernek's not doing that. But I don't see him being that high on the odds in the betting market for the first right. It's just a disaster. It's tough to get that race sharpness without actually racing. That's such a big gap. It's like he's had a 12 month off season. Yeah, but there's so many factors. Like, this is a really hard year. Like the last two days before the time trial, stage 19 and 20, they are brutal. We're not talking, oh, having off day and losing 15 seconds. You can make that up in the time truck. We're talking, you're losing couple of minutes if you're on and off day then. Which you're not making back up in the time truck. And it's his first grandeur. He's coming back from an injury where, let's be honest, he basically fell from the third story of a building on OZ-E. It was crazy. It's ridiculous. Like, for him, for him to get a top five in this duo would be phenomenal, but I just, I think he's, he's on a two short, you know, I think for a kid, not a pressure. Like he's still a kid like, I don't even know what I was dealing with that age. I was like drinking tons of the perk. Yeah, I know. But I think he's so mature though. Like the way he rides in the bunch like last year was just ridiculous. You could see the commands that he had, and he almost thrives off that wolf pack mentality of which stuff, like he's a really good rider. I don't give me wrong, I think he will win a grand tour one day, but I don't think it's gonna be this year. Yeah, it's gonna be definitely an interesting three weeks. The jiro is always my favorite race because it's just so chaotic. The tour, it's amazing because it's the tour and it's romantic, but the jiro is just crazy finishes, and then you chat to the Reuters, they're also pissed off at the long transfers and the shit hotels and it's just a crazy, crazy race.
Gravel stage is going to be phenomenal
Yeah, the gravel stage is going to be phenomenal. Like that, that Kedel Evans win from I think it was 2010. It was a waste. That is one of the best Euro stages ever and to bring it back, like people don't like to grab a in grand tours. Yes, I think gravel on the 20th day at the top of a mountain where there's no neutral service, what happened to Ricky last year in the tour is a bit good. But having an actual gravel stage early on in the tour, I think it's a good way to define an all-round cyclist. Just as much as you need a team time trial every once in a while, you need downhill feelings, is think a bit of gravel and a bit of poplestone is good. It's just amazing for spectators as well. Absolutely. Like when you're looking at a pick out these key, and often this is the way though, the difference between spectators and the Reuters, because the stages of oil pick out as a spectator are probably the same stages that 90% of the peloton are looking at and going, oh fuck, I'm not looking forward to that day. Because that's dangerous, because that's scary, because that's difficult. make everyone like so right now I'm really looking forward to that gravel stage but if I was in that race I'd really not be looking forward to that gravel stage you know but yeah I mean that stage we could be talking week going into week two already with one of the GC guys having a clear command of the race and I think banal is going to be unstoppable. Like just a little watching him at Strata. I think that stage will show up. I bunch of the contestants. He looks a lot better this year. Last season, it seems like he got, you find this a lot with guys the year after they win the tour. Gran Thomas had the same thing where he struggled the year after he won the tour, I think, with the expectation and then balancing all the extra media stuff on top of that book. I followed Bernal on Strava the year after his tour de France. He was putting in the craziest fucking training rides I'd ever seen. He was doing eight, nine-hour endurance rides. Not pretty occasionally. It was insane the volume he was putting in. It just seemed like somebody who was just more as better, panicking to compounds, and the gains they already had. He looked like a fellow with the weight of the world on him in in the Tour de France last year. Yeah, yeah, I think that coupled with the Slovenians just just crazy, crazy in those punchy, easy, easy 6% for 15 kilometers with punchy finishes. I mean, Benel, not that type of rider, he needs some altitude, he needs some steep the prime, it was almost tailored to the Slovenians last year, really. For sure, for sure. Jake, thanks for catching up. We're going to hopefully catch up again. We'll give it a bit of time to get a few more races under you and continue our little life as a neo-prox section, which I'm quite enjoying. Yeah, definitely. I love talking cycling as well, so I'm happy to keep coming on. Also, it's like I get to kind of live vicariously through you without any hard work, so it's pretty cool. There's a lot of hard work so I'll take that one for the team. Cheers Jay, thanks for chatting. Cool. Hey everybody, it's Anthony again. Really quick, I want to invite you to join arguably the best team I've ever put out inside the roadman community. It's a challenge. It's a challenge called a 14 day kickstart challenge. So regardless of where your fitness is at right now, this This is going to be the catalyst for making you faster and making you 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 masters, 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 roadmancycling.com slash 14 day.