Vuelta España Champion for 2020 is Primo's Ruglech
The Vuelta España Champion for 2020 is Primo's Ruglech. Let's get into it. 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 and this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Anthony Walsh and welcome to the Roadman Podcast. Roadman, welcome back Roadman, it's another week, it's another roadman podcast, it's another Monday and that's a lot of another's back to back, another week, another podcast, another Monday. It is in fact our last review of the Vuelta of the entire season, the court has come down on this year's Vuelta aspania and we have crowned a glorious fitting winner. La Vignez Primos Roglic, after being deprived in the Tour de France by Tagei Pogacha in really just dramatic style on La Plata Belfie on the last time trial. There was no such repeat of history, but Roglic pushing through some really tough challenges. And I actually think that's fascinating. So I'm going to get into that summit finish and the last challenge and the tactics and how it unfolded. And a lot of nuances that you might be aware of that hilltop finish because I think a lot of it encapsulates why we love cycling. Before I jump into the podcast and reflect on this historic day for us living yet, let me ask all you good folk to please head on over to patreon.com. The link is in the bio, it's patreon.com forward slash Anthony underscore watch last week. And again, this week, I can't help her from back to when I had the A1 show because it had such a huge audience and I'm just getting so many memories at the moment on my phone from around that period because it was in full swing and it seemed like it was going to be around forever and unfortunately it's not around forever but we have second bite at the cherry here with the roadman podcast and it's gone brilliant and right now I know it feels like it's going to be around forever but your generosity on patreon is what makes that happen it's what makes this will call it a quirky little startup at the moment what makes it a reality and makes it turn it into a podcast arrival, the S So in the last episode I just dropped last week, I'm talking about how I'm using DNA testing at the moment to gain a little performance edge and I talk about a drink that I'm taking every morning that burns fat. Two really interesting hooks there to get you interested. So to get access to that and the other secret podcast episodes, subscribe over on Patreon for the price of a beer once a month, link is in the boil. Right folks, let's get into it. Well that is spania, it's over. So stage 18 didn't really have much dramatic sandbend, it was beaten by Pascal Ackermann and Cantor was toward which rounded out the podium. But what I want to talk about is the final mountain stage the day before, stage 17, it was the summit at La Covitala and we had just drama, drama, drama. So a big breakaway went early in the day and Roglic was looking enough to put Hofsted into the breakaway, his teammates. And the breakaway went and they would go on and contest the finish. But that's not where I want to put my focus because it's two days ago, where I want to put my focus is what unfolded and the tactics with Roglic and how he held onto this world at España. Because with two kilometers to go, when Carapaz attacked, it looked like we were going to have a repeat of history. It looked for a long time and I was watching it, I was on the couch and I was like I had this sinking feeling it wasn't warm in the house but my palm started getting sweaty I was nervous for Roglic I just felt the mugging on La Plata Bell fee but Pagacha that he somehow jinxed himself and it was happening again as Carapas from Ineos attacked and he carved out five seconds 10 seconds 15 seconds I was like oh my god it's happening Roglic looked like he was blown he was isolated and then what happened was just brilliant it's why teams put that man into the breakaway early, Hofsted. It was like he got air dropped. It was like he parry was into the side of the mountain. Hofsted comes back. He hasn't got a lot left in the tank, but he's able to give Roglich that respite from the chase for 400 meters or so. He pulls until he hasn't got a breath left in his lungs. Now what happens next is equally interesting because we had Carapaz who left movie star last year, and by all accounts he didn't leave movie star with a good taste in his milk.
Now we have behind, we have Mark Salaire who's in the early breakaway…
So now we have behind, we have Mark Salaire who's in the early breakaway and we have Einrich Mass both from movie star and we have, I would call it like a tri-fectet of incentives for movie star to ride. Einrich Mass is fought on GC, Dan Martin is fifth and he's dropped. So they want to ride to get away from Dan Martin. There's no love loss for Carapas. These movie star boys do not like Carapas. They're pulling to get away to bring him back because they don't want them to win and Primos Roglich is the anointed son in cycling at the moment. He can do no wrong, he's a career maker. To have a favour banked from Primos Roglich it's a very very valuable favour. So those three reasons Suller gave and saved Roglich's Vuelta España. He pulled, he pulled, he pulled. Denonurk Mass took up the pollen. Roglich was finally able to jump clear and in the end Carapaz only had 15 seconds at the line, still leaving a 24 second buffer on Roglish to win this year's Vuelta as Spania. It was epic stuff and just to understand that dynamic when you're watching a play out in real time, Dan Martin's distance, yeah, are they gonna get two and a half minutes from Dan Martin or whatever he needs? Probably not, but they don't know that at the time so they're driving for that, they're driving the bank that favour from Roglish and I think most importantly and crucially to this, their drive and because as Carapas left a surre taste in their mouth. They're driving to wipe that smirk off his face that he went to inios. And those three reasons, Roglic hangs on to a Vuelta España second year in a row and it's a famous, famous win for Roglic. Incidentally, Chris Froome was awarded the win of the Vuelta España from 2011, which I thought was a nice touch. I'm sure a welcome morale boost. Juan Jose Cobo obviously got popped for being a dirty drug chase and they took it off himself from home had been previously given the title but he was awarded the trophy which I told a nice touch from the Vuelta organizers. Roglage over the course of this Vuelta he of course won the opening stage and three more along the way but it was a race that got away from my times where he twice lost the lead to Carapaz and as a cycling fan it just leaves me wondering where the carapaz I think carapaz as much as I've berated him on the podcast and been very very critical of him at times and his attitude and the way he deals with people I think he wrote a very good race and he was let down big-time boys team any else have not come this season strong enough now Teal Gagan Hart won the 0-0 but as the podcast listeners know I wasn't too invested in the 0 so I can't speak to the nuances of that race but But if you look at how we want it, looky mugged it, he won it on the last day. So there was no requirement from the team to step up to the mantle, to step up to the place, to be weighed, to be measured. Because that's what's happened in the Vuelta, that's what's happened in the tour. They've been weighed, they've been measured and they've been found wanting time and time again. Carapaz, he was exposed in the high mountains, he was exposed on flat stages throughout the course of the race. It was a tragic enough performance from Ineos. And this season, Yumbo-Visma have absolutely, definitively marked themselves off as the number one team in Saikul at the moment. If you look at Sepp Kuse, Sepp Kuse is there to the death with Roglage. He is there beyond how long team leaders are hanging in from other teams. Like you look at Tevo Pinot and writers like Daffron Francis De Jue, on huge salaries, team leaders and the mystiques from Yumbo-Visma. They've Karapah, or sorry, they've George Bennes, they've Tom Dumaland, and they have Seppkuse, and they're all hanging in longer than team leaders of other teams. So when you add Roglic into that mix, you four Yumbovismalads at the spicy end of a Boycrace when other teams don't even have one. So two tanks struck me in that Boycrace. It was Roglic and Yumbovismas dominance again. the race Roglich was definitely fast to acknowledge that he said my whole team is special we've done special things this year this Vuelta they've pushed even when we've not been on our best moments we've done our best and it's been amazing I'm really happy and I'm glad to be a part of this team when you win more you learn more about how you enjoy it but it's always a different story and a different race you can't always compare it to last year it's definitely it's an amazing place to be that we're in right now Roglich you absolute legend But the second thing that jumps out on me, this race is, I'm actually, sorry, treating the jump out of me, the failure of any else, Rugged Just Dominance and the emergence of Hugh Carter as a GC rider.
After the race, he said, my career, it's changed a lot now in the…
And after the race, he said, my career, it's changed a lot now in the future. I want to try for grand tours. I don't want to stop now with the team I have. I'm in a perfect place to fight for these races. I'll be able to count on great support from the squad because there's a lot of opportunities ahead. There certainly is Hugh Carty proved again on the Covid-Tia, the last challenge on the Saturday. He proved that he's just a set of balls on this kid and I know a friend of mine, Aaron Bugle, who actually used to co-host DA1 show with me, which I was talking about at the start. He was teammates with Hugh Carty at Rafa for a number of years and he said he's a lovely guy, so it's great to see him. It's great to see him just progressing and now a serious grand tour challenge and he has a friend of the show, Rusty Mike Woods, up there in the Holly Mountains with him. It's been a roller reversal where Woods, I tipped him at the start to ride GC. He had a crash on the first day which put him out at GC. He went on one a couple of stages but he's going to be a perfect foil and a great super to mistake. If EF education can add a little bit of strength in the off season and he'll be able to step up a small bit more, We're looking at him as a serious grand-horcan hinder. He looks like a long, he looks like a stretched out version of Frillum. Like if you got Frillum by the toes and the fingers and you just pull them, he's just a slightly longer version. The other thing that I noted from this race was they said goodbye to Rory Sutherland. So I'll hopefully get Rory Sutherland off of Israel's start-up nation. Now he was a great teammate for Dan Martin, all through his race, Dan Martin getting forward. But he's been a great writer over the last decade. So I'll try and reach out and get Rory on the podcast in the next couple of weeks. See someone whose career I follow quite closely because he raced in the US around the same time as me when the tour, the Hila tour of boats before going on, right? With Saxo Bank and some of the biggest teams in the world, movie star, and now finishing at Israel. So yeah, a footnote for a lot of people, but I definitely noticed these things. I especially start to notice people of my generation start to retire, which is maybe quite telling in a lot of ways. Anyway, the story of the week, the story of the season, it's Primos Roglitch, he's out of two classics win by defending his Vuelta España title. Roadman, thanks for listening, it's another week, get out there, get it done and make it a week to remember. And you know what I'm gonna say, I'm gonna chat to you again tomorrow. Okay, stop what you're doing, it's Anthony again, I wanna talk to you for one second about the next step in the roadman journey. I'm laying down a challenge for you. It's called the eight week challenge. So for eight weeks, I'm challenging you to be the very best version of yourself. Whatever that is. For eight weeks, I wanna take you under my wing and I wanna personally build for you customize training plan on our analytics platform. This plan is gonna be laser focused on your goal and I'm gonna navigate around your life, your work, your social commitments. So don't worry about what your circumstances are right now. I remember after I took some time out of cycling, and I went off and thought I was a really big business man. I came back and I realized I wanted to get into cycling, but I knew after a bit, to train it alone, it actually wasn't making me any thinner. I needed an entire system. It needed a 360 overhaul. So for the first time ever, I wanna share with you this exact system I used to get back in shape. I'm talking stuff like, I'm gonna give you my morning routines, the cold therapy I used, the cookbooks and recipes I used, and even the motivational audios listening to get back on track. So right now what I want you to do is pause this audio, go to www.rollmancycling.com forward slash eight week or check out the link in the bio, click that. So one more time at rollmancycling.com forward slash eight week. Chatty also.