It's stage 2 of the Tour de France
It's stage 2 of the Tour de France. Welcome back to another roadman's horror France podcast. It's stage 2 and we haven't wasted any time getting into the hills this year. Cracker of a stage today and before I even get started with telling you what happened. Well this is spoiler alert, this is going to tell you what happened straight away. But I don't suppose you're listening to the podcast because you're hoping I won't give away the results. That'll be weird. I I remember last time I had a podcast on, maybe it was the Vuelta or the Tour last year. I was very sporadic with the podcast and we hadn't quite, I don't even think it was called the roadman podcast. But at the time I announced the winner of a race and I got like a message from some lad like you need to put spoiler alert in the title. It's like, would you get over yourself? You're listening to a results show and you don't expect the hair results. Check yourself out. Okay, I was out trying this morning and I ended up having to tape the tour of France I wasn't sure what time was gonna finish at and I ended up having to tape it and come home and I watched the last 80k watch somewhere on fast forward But I called it. I called it out my ride today. I said the darling of France I'm calling everyone the housewives favorite. I can't pin out a housewives favorite, but Alifalee's the true housewives favorite. I called it Alifalee. I could just see him whacking it on that call that is And he went earlier than his traditional attack. He normally leaves him for that sort of 600-700 meters, might explosive and then down to the scent. He went earlier today. He went about kilometer, kilometer and a half of the top. I'm gonna get into all that in one second. What I do need to do first is remind you to go and check out Patreon. I need you to check out Patreon now more than ever. The Tour de France Daily podcast. It's a massive train on time. It's a massive train on resources. Not saying that to give you some sort of guilt trip, just saying that to make it aware that I do have patreon.com forward slash Anthony Walsh there. That's the way you can help support the podcast. It's the way you can tip your cap, boy a coffee, boy a beer, say, thanks for the time, thanks for the research. And thank you for all those who've subscribed on Patreon already. It's much appreciated. We're on stage two folks, we've made it. We've made it to stage two. I feel like I'm going to be saying this every single day because every day in itself is nearly a victory that we get through. Because looking today at the crowds on the finishing circus, you wouldn't know there's any COVID going on. And I don't know how long before this starts getting public attention and we stop talking about the race and mainstream media starts talking about the crowds that are at Boycraces that boy crisis because it was like a fool around these today. Like I said yesterday, I don't know how you can keep people off open roads. Unless there's complete corefuse, which there's not, it's just going to be very hard to keep residents from coming out to watch as the Tour de France passes by their house. Mad drama even before the stage started today with the fallout from yesterday's stage, John Deggancob missed the time cut yesterday, which was harsh. But it wasn't actually legitimately missed the time cut and the peloton slowed down for half of the second half of the race so he can't have too many complaints. But reading his Instagram yesterday evening he said today I lost it all I worked and I trained for in a special 2020 a crash took us Kaleb and me and a lot of other riders on the wet ground and destroyed all my dreams, destroyed my tour on day one with my knees open I could finish with a lot of pain alone and more than 18 minutes down. got a feel for him. I went to Tour de France stage two years ago and John Deggencob won on the Roubaix circuit that day so I have a special fondness for John Deggencob and sorry the same go out like that. Philip Gilbert also had a repeat of his injury. Remember that horrific crash was two years ago or last year in the tour when Gilbert was with the Wolfpack? almost called him the Rat Pack. That's an image for you isn't it? Like Frank Sinatra and the boys in the car and equip step gear? Yeah someone needs to go and photoshop that for me. Philip Schaeber when he was with Quickstep and he misjudged the corner on the descent and went over Evan Paul's style and broke his Patella. Well he's after doing it again and he didn't diagnose it last night until almost midnight so yeah he must have been in shock and paying for finishing the second half of the race yesterday. and then just wondering what was going on as he was getting his massage and anyway 12 o'clock the news broke that he had a fracture patella and he's out at a race.
Love Philip Gilbert one of my favorite riders in the bunch and it…
I love Philip Gilbert one of my favorite riders in the bunch and it means a lot of his age to be pulling out after day one because I don't know how many more tours he has in him. I hope well if Vaverity is gone if Vaverity is a goid for us maybe has another 10 tours in him but I think Vaverity is quite a typical and I would imagine Gilbert is one or two towards left for a rider of his style that really punchy explosive rider. We rarely see him going heading towards 40. So look let's hope Philip Gilbert wishes a speedy recovery. He obviously crashed in yesterday's stage which is near Nice and he lives in Monaco so he has a huge commute home which just bothers Silver Line on all that. To drag Silver Line on that story, that's a real glass half full. That just shows the eternal optimist that I am. Sam Bennett yesterday, I flagged this on yesterday's stage that if I was Sam Bennett I would have been pissed about that style and the bunch. If I was any of his sprinters I would have been pissed about that style and the bunch when Tony Martin and the GC boys took it on themselves to shut the bunch off. I can totally see it and I debated with myself yesterday about the morality of whether it's right to pull people's lives in risk. But it's a boy craze and you're always on the edge of, like to say it's borderline unsafe is a bit of a joke because it's always borderline unsafe. It's boy craze and but yeah, look, I'm not going to have that debate with myself again because it's just not a winnable debate with yourself. But yeah, Bennett was rightly frustrating. I seen his comments after the finish line yesterday and he was talking about, well, look, I'll give you the quote. He said, so I thought really hard to stay in the front and I could have just rolled back on. I could have taken it so much more easily and then sprinted with fresher legs in the final. And I think that kind of sums it up. Like, he didn't have to fight really hard on those climbs like he did. He didn't have to expend all that energy. And, you know, it's not fair, but then again, I don't know how often it is sport fair. So, I hope we're getting deep today, we're getting deep how often it's sport fair, right? Crack on to this before I start going on sort of a Marcus Aurelius, type both here with my philosophical tangents. Yumbo Visma were notable on the front of Call that is second time up and taking control of the race. And it's something we're not used to seeing because we're used to seeing the team sky, any else, whatever they're calling themselves is, I'm not calling them, Grenad or whatever they're doing. They're changing their name too often. You change your name too often, this is what happens. Nobody calls you about your proper name. So your team in Eos. And if you change your name again, you're going back to the team sky in my book. Yumbo Visma, riding on the front, and it's brilliant to watch that yellow train on the front. And they are beasts. But they did have one mishap on the way in their lieutenants Tom Dumelan who is the GC contender for this race make no mistake you know Premas Roglic is out now the race favourite at the moment in my book but Tom Dumelan is there there about and if anything happens to Roglic watch for Yum Bovismet to row in behind Dumelan. Dumelan touched wheels looking back over his shoulder look like he touched wheels were Kiek Hofsky from Team He went down and he went down hard. He managed to get gone, no mechanicals on the bike. He lost about 10 seconds and then he got back in, probably adrenaline, still pushing hard. It was cool to watch a friend of the show, Nick O'Roch taking the KOM points over call that is. That's obviously if anyone's wondering his roach. Mounting a challenge for the mountains classification. I would read not very much into that. I think it was more a case of roach is a local and he wanted to take the KOM points. wanted to take the KOM points on front of his friends and family who are at the top of the climb watching him so I wouldn't read too much into that one. We dats thing him out of leap, attack on the cold air and there was only one man that could follow him. That was a former under 23 world champion Hershey, Nicholas Rocha's team from some web. On that ping and Cervelo. What a boy that is. I love the ride one of them. I have this theory that the Cervelo or fife, CA. If anyone has a chance to ride that bike, it's beautiful. It's the nicest bike I've ever ridden and that was back in 2014. I have this theory that that's like our Concord moment in Sowiklin, that the bikes have got worse since then but yeah, who knows, I haven't ridden all the new bikes but it's the best bike I've ever ridden.
Have a love affair with Sinter Velo since then
So I have a love affair with Sinter Velo since then. Hershey and Alifleap were combining on the climb and I don't say they were were combining well but they were combining and then Yates blasted across to them. Super, super fresh set of heels from Yates just left the peloton in his dust. He worked, he got straight to work and he inspired Hershey to work and because of that the tree had etched out that lead all the way down the climb, it flattened out at about 2k from the finish and it was a tree up sprint and the tree up sprint was never really going to favor Yates and the boys left it late. They left it real, real late and in the end it was who we'd expect. My call on the train has been today. I don't want to brag but I've called that one. It was Julian Alaphaleep who gave the fresh set of hails and took the yellow jersey and it was unbelievable to watch them crying on the finish line. You got to love the French. They're just, they wear their heart on the sleeve. Now he could be crying on the side of the road for something else tomorrow and it could be something massively trivial but will celebrated for what it is at the moment, that is passion, it's infectious and I'd love to say or repeat what we see in last year with Alifley really putting it to the GC guys all the way to the end. I don't see Bernal this year, like I'm probably going to be proved wrong, but I just don't see it from Bernal. I just, I don't want to say last year was a fluke because he probably is the future, but I still think he's the future. I don't think he's the present. I think it was a poor decision to leave Thomas at home and I think in y'all are going to pay for that. And I'm gonna go out there and say any else are gonna have a tragically poor tour de France Now I'm gonna pull that sound boy back out with a rump clearer in a couple of weeks But I'm calling it you got a nail your flags to the mast and I'm calling it Yates was happy on the finish line with his tour place. He said I just came across Julian alla fleep and Hershey started working them straight away under the scent. There was a block headwind coming into the final I love the way it says the final if you're like a cat for a racer somewhere It's just our call at the final people are immediately on a tank. You're awesome To go back to Yates's quag a strong headwind coming into the final It wasn't super easy in the end. I was never gonna win the sprint. Well, you're not gonna win it with an attitude like that They're both faster than me and to come to her place on the second stage at shorter France I'm pretty happy with that Yates added to finish honestly I'm pretty happy with that for you, Yates. I think he has a stage win. And I'm, guys, we're only on stage two. That suspenseful party is every morning I wake up and I'm like, will we have the next stage of the Tour de France? Like, is COVID gonna shut this down? Who knows? The last thing I want to finish on, that's what's growing in my years at the moment. I listened to on the Wayo training this morning, the Bradley Wiggins podcast. I listened to their Armstrong one last night. And both of them are doing this connoting, that they're too cool for school, that they don't know the names of Reuters. And they're kind of, I don't have to pretend that they're just not, they're not pretending, they're just not tuned in. They genuinely don't know the names of Reuters. And they don't have their finger on the pulse, but you can play that on conical, on the alpha male dude, I'm too cool to do my homework in school. But that, you're pundits now. It's your fucking job to know the names of the writers, to just go, oh I don't know, I don't know the guys that's a change and face of the peloton. It's just as a listener, it's horrible, it's lazy. And I do, I don't particularly like either of the characters, but I do enjoy both of their podcasts. And that massively turned me off today. That was just something that was on my chest, a little bit of a rant. You know, this is my soapbox after all. Guys, I'm gonna be back to you tomorrow for stage three of The Tour de France. Thanks for listening and don't forget please please please go check out that Patreon, it's patreon.com forward slash Anthony underscore watch. I'm gonna put the link in the boil. That's really what floats this. Honestly this podcast We're not Mr. Bradley Wiggins. We're not Lance Armstrong. Every little contribution does help towards that break even figure. Thanks for listening and chatty again tomorrow.