Van Aert Conquers Double Ventoux
Rowman, let's talk about a double vontude. Yep, you heard me right, a double vontude. 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, a disc podcast will give you the answers. My name is Anthony Walsh and welcome to the Rowman Podcast. Robyn, welcome back at stage 11 of the Tour de France from Sousger to Malacine, 198.9 kilometres. You don't need to worry yourself about those pronunciations because all you need to know is today is a double vontoure. Like double just sounds rough, like I just went down to the coffee shop and I ordered an espresso and she's like you want a double espresso and it's like that sounds a bit much. It just sounds, it sounds too much. Two Von 2s in one day should not be written by any man. I suppose before we get into the podcast proper, you can't mention Von 2 without mentioning the lace, gray, Tom Simpson and unfortunately and tragically lost his life on the 13th of July 1967 while sitting in the top 10 to tour of France and pushing to try and take that jersey. So I think every time we go up one two and rightly so we remember the great Tommy Simpson. So rest in peace Tommy. And the break today definitely would have been something he would have been proud of because it was just littered with stars of our sport. Alifeliepe, Woutfaneart, Boke Moloma, Dan Martin. We'd older lads than it'd be. It's a bit of a stretch to call Kenny Elison the star of the sport but nonetheless he's a great boycrotter and you know it was a solid solid good climbing group and then we had the lad who was second in yesterday's bunch sprint soloed to victory Weltfaneart second yesterday to Mark Cavendish the fastest man in the sort of France and there we go today and wins a double Vontou stage in the Belgian Championships jersey we've known for a long time that Weltfaneart maybe along with Machuveander Paul are the two most versatile riders in our sport. Wout, he can time trial, he can climb, he can sprint, he can ride cyclocross, I'm sure he can ride BMX. He's just an all-round legend. I did notice Wout van Ertere today, he wasn't rocking his sponsored set of Team Wheels. Instead, he was rocking a blacked-out set of wheels, which I believe are metron vision wheels, interesting that a few riders and teams this year have elected to kind of black kid out and use just the best kid available rather than their sponsors kid. Shortest sponsor, absolutely loved that. We've seen Machu Vanderpaul and he rocked the TT with all sorts of tricked out aerodynamics stuff to try and hold on to the jersey. With a number of abundance today, Miles Scottson from Groupama FDJ and FDJ have some sort of bug. It's like a COVID type bug, but it hits annually every July for Francis de Gio. We remember a couple of years ago, Pino and the knee injury and those tears and David Godot all rolled super well and tore his Swiss and Roman in the dolphin aid this year. But he just doesn't seem to have it this year and then he's dropped. Like he's sitting on a tent on GC before today's stage and then he's dropped on the forced ascent on Vontu. Their FDJ just can't get it together for the Tour de France and Moll Scott's and from FDJ abandoned today, along with some other notable rotors, one of my favourite rotors, Tees Penoot from DSM, Tony Martin, look, Yumbovism, it's just difficult for him to get any look this year. And, World of Honor turned that around today, we did a Tosh Fander Sander from Lotto Sudo, we'd Clement Rosa and Dan McLean, both Marques Samson, and we did a World Air Record Victor Carpenarts from Quebecan, next hash, all climbed off today in stage 11.
Ineos Tactics and GC Drama
We've seen the GC, but unfortunately we've seen any of us roiding like they had deleted this race. And I'm not really sure why we've seen that. Maybe there's a couple of scenarios. Maybe they taught to win the stage and they didn't anticipate Wout Van Earth, been so strong up front. Maybe they taught to crack Pogacha and put some pressure on them. And they did put some pressure on them, but they weren't the benefactor of that pressure. We've seen the young Danish Jonas Vindegard was the benefactor and seemed to be the only on who could crack Pogacha very slightly. They did crack Ben O'Connor, they cracked the Inrich Mass, so it's hard to massively criticize them. I just would have liked to see them go on the attack on Von 2, edition 1, rather than waiting for the second time around, because Percarapas doesn't have that pop to go with Pogacha when he goes. I thought they might go from further out. Look, very easy to criticize them for roiding like headless chickens today and roiding like they're leading the race when in fact they were sitting and fifth in GC going into the race. But what was the alternative? Really what was the alternative? They were just going to sit back and do nothing. So at least they tried something. Look we can criticise them for trying the wrong thing but yeah look they tried something. So hopefully they keep trying something. We flagged a few days ago that the GC battle is more or less done and most of the drama isn't coming from there. The drama today came from Wote Van Aert up in the break. The drama from the GC battle today was pretty fucking tame if we're completely honest. Windergard did get Pogacha briefly at the top of the climb. He said he Pogacha in his post-race interview said he blew a little bit but it just looked like a case of managing his effort. He didn't need to go with it. He was just over the top of the climb. He's Chasers coming from behind. He's Rigoberto around Carapaz. He nestles into that chase group of tree and they easily really end Windergard in the finish two, finish in a group of four. The crack in in Pogacha, I would say is more symbolic because it gives hope to other GC teams to go, well, this lad's not infallible. He's human. He has two legs. He has hair. He has lungs. He can be beaten. And it's possible that Pogacha's come into the tour. I'm not saying this is likely, but it's possible that Pogacha has come into the tour de France overcooked or right on form and then when you add in the first race week now he's over cooked in week two and we might start seeing some cracks in him but he still looks stronger than Karapaz Rigoberto Iran so it's hard to say there's any cracks. Also I've heard a lot of pundits thrown around this idea that last year Pogacha didn't have to deal with the press and the media involved because he only got the jersey the Moir Jean on the last day in the time trial and this This year there's expectation on them, there's media obligations on them, there's podium ceremonies, etc. And I know that takes a little bit extra, but he just looks like a lad who's going to take all that and is destroyed. I honestly don't see him. You can lose time in time trials, cross wins or pills. He's not losing time and up pills are time trials. They're going to have to test them in the cross wins. Order teams may be encouraged now to have a crack at them. If we're going to see any level of race and of any interest, that's what we need. For me, the main interest left in this Tour de France. It's coming from our Cavendish and chasing this record.
Cavendish Eyes Merckx Record
That's what we're going to get back to tomorrow. But before I dive into that, just today, wrapped up with World Van Ar, taking an amazing double-von to stage win, which is brilliant. Kenny Elisand and second was teammate Buck, Molomad, two of them crossing the line and high five in each other. Second and Tour isn't a great look for two teammates when you're in a break and you you know break of eight but we'll leave that one there. Pogacha's coming in fourth, Rigoberto around fifth. GC has a little bit of a change. Pogacha obviously still leading. Look Pogacha's got five minutes and 18 seconds lead over second place. And like it's unbelievable. Rigoberto around that's in five minutes 18. Jonas Vindegard's up to third place and he's at 5.32. Carapaz has moved up one spot to fourth at 5.33 and Ben O'Connor has moved down from second to fifth at 5.58. But let that gap sink in five minutes and 18 seconds to Rigoberto Iran. It's massive. He's a better time-trollist and he's a better climber than all the boys behind him. Just don't see where that's going to go wrong. Cav did make the time cut today. You'll be happy to know. I haven't heard how hard he had to work for it. No doubt he did have to work for it. Tomorrow we're going to have a bunch sprint. Cav is going to go to equal that record tomorrow. We're going starting in San Paul, Twa Chateau. We're riding 159.4 kilometers into NIM. And we're gonna see a bunch of kick. We're gonna see expectation on Cavendish. He's not a man that typically crumbles on their pressure and expectation. I fully expect him to equal the record tomorrow. Wilt Van Eart, winning the stage today is the best thing that could have happened to Cavendish. He had a tough, tough day, and he was second yesterday, most likely to threaten them. Belgian obviously is going to be fiercely protective of that Eddie Merck's record and that could have been extra in center for a World Fan Art if you ever needed a twin at all the france stage, but I think it's the main missile tomorrow folks before I head off Just a reminder to support the podcast on patreon.com forward slash Anthony underscore watch to support the podcast All you have to do is buy me a price for point of beer and it keeps the show on the road and it ensures that everybody listening to the podcast can keep listening free of charge. Also follow me over on Instagram it's roadman.cycling over Instagram with low to cool gravel adventures going on cycling tips every day of the week and just generally a bit of a laugh going on over on Instagram it's roadman.cycling. Roadman thank you for tuning in ride safe I'm gonna chat you all tomorrow 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 kickstart 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 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 meal plans, shopping list and even a video course holding your hand and talking you through 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.