Welcome and Andorra appreciation
It's the first American win in 10 years on the Tour de France. It's stage 15, 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, and this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Anthony Walsh, and welcome to the Row Man Podcast. Roman, welcome back to another Roman Tour de France special. Tomorrow is the rest day and my voice needs a rest. I listened to a Joe Rogan podcast a while ago and he had Miley Cyrus on and she was talking about fatiguing voice. I definitely feel that today. Spent a little bit of time shouting at the screen like a mad elf on the Bauverdey sep course dramatic finale which we'll get into in a second and then the podcast. You know, So I'm getting very precious race last noise, racing again tomorrow and racing again on Tuesday. So yeah, looking forward to the rest day tomorrow and It's in and Dora, which is where we finished today first stage 15 in the capital of and Dora and Dora de Ville It's absolutely beautiful and I've been wanting to get away after the Tour de France somewhere and I was trying with maybe 10 reef You know going somewhere to ride my bike and just generally go hiking bit of mountain and running some outdoor life. I've been to Andorra once and it's absolutely picturesque. So I think I'm gonna go back there because it's just, it's stunning and I love it and I wanna go and explore it more. And we had spent often the podcast a number of weeks ago and he was just talking about how he loved Andorra every morning and across into the stream. And you know, which reminds me today, his podcast is brought to you by the Andorra Tourism Board. That's not now, but it did sound a little bit like an informerge of Andorra there. So I'm gonna move on. Early skirmishes in today's tour stage, and the victim of that was Nasser Buhani getting the back of the net. Buhani has abandoned. He's gone home, we can celebrate. We'll celebrate as much with the Buhani abandoned, and as we will, if England lose the euros later on. England, of course, like in the European Championship Final tonight, as an Irish person, as a famous Irish comedian said, It's not that we don't like the English, it's just that we like to see them lose and things like sport and war. So yeah, well, I'll definitely be rooting for Italy if just for a bit of fun and of one of my training partners is English as well. So it's good to give him a bit of a beautiful banter. Today's main breakaway was Star Stoodled and in any other race these could have been the overall contenders but the way this race has played out on Pagachas dominance None of these guys are featuring in the GC but we had Valverde, Quintana, Wodz, Nibley, Wultpeil, Sepkuse, Wotvannert, Alephaleep, David Godot, among others in a large escape today. We went over the Chima Cup at the highest point in the race this year which was in Andorra and we've seen this fascinating battle for KO endpoints between Wodz, Wotvannert, Wultpools and Nairal Quintana and it emerged after all the climbing today that Walt Pools is going to pull on the Polkadot climbers jersey from Mike Wodes. Walt Pools has a kick on him and I didn't realise that. He was challenging Woutf on Earth and sprints at the top of the mountains. Super, super strong. In the final over the last stage we had Cepcoos and Valverde foraging Clear and they were the two strongest when it came to the steepest grades because that climb it was called the Beeless. It was 6.4km long, which doesn't sell much at 8.5% but those kilometre stretches in it over 11% and it had a crazy atmosphere on the last climb. We'd even Didi the Devil out on the climb and Didi is one of those famed Tour de France guys and we didn't see him last year with COVID so he's not getting any younger unless he's the second incarnation of the Devil.
Kuss's terrifying descent from Valverde
He's been around for a long, long time so good to see him back out but Septus forged ahead on those steepest lobes for a very, he just couldn't follow and it's worked out okay for, no, it hasn't worked out okay, it's worked out very well for Yumbovisme, but Yumbovisme stuck three riders in the breakaway this morning and they only have five lads left in the entire race and they have Jonas Vindergaard who's in a podium position now after today and they left them super isolated all day and when you consider Sakara passes one place behind the Jonas Vindergaard, Ina Kmas is two places behind them. And the support they got from their teams, full teams, trying stuff, pulling stuff off from him, and he was left basically to fend for himself. And as I say, it's fine when it works out Janus had good legs and he was able to follow in the final and then Cepcus goes and takes the stage without van Ertz set him up brilliantly under the scent and he launched. And it's fine when it works out, but this is a completely different podcast if Cepcus gets caught by Valverde on that descent, because we had this entrolling butt on the descent between sep coz and valverde and i'm just glad i wasn't either them specifically sep coz because that's fucking terrifying to have to take chances all the way down to descent with a former world champion and renown descent they're hot on your heels hit an 18 second gap over the top of the descent with 15 kilometers to go and he railed it and even extended it by seven seconds on the descent but yeah that's squeaky bum time oh he would have have brown shorts down that descent if I had to do with sebcos, though because it is taking chances, it is on the limit all the way down, it's as much a mental as it is physical battle. Yeah, it was a very trailing finale and we needed that because the GC battle is just as stale as they come up with Pogacha just so dumb and we had that group and any else to be fair to them, they tried something. They haven't even had one top five stage placing in this year's Tour de France, and if Carapas sit in and forth, they tried something. That's all you can say, but at what point do you say, lads, are you better off looking for a stage win than trying to push for a podium position? I don't know what's better, as well as it's just priorities for the sponsor. For me, it would seem better to Yumbo-Vizma are more successful and more in mind with the stage win today on arguably the hardest stage and the double vantouve in World Fan Art than any else and you know actually sure that's a stupid thing because World Fan Art are sorry I have in the guards toward on GC as well so yeah look obviously Jumbovism are a lot more successful than them this year but the point being that a couple of stage wins in my eyes is better than coming than pulling a full rigor bear throw around on and you're in the race without being in the race, you're getting second toward Ford on GC but you're never challenging the race. Inio stuck the full team on the front coming into that last climb, they even pulled two riders back out of the break. They did succeed and isolate in Pogacha but to what ends, they dropped again Martan the philosopher from second on GC and he's down to ninth on GC now. But honestly I don't think we needed inio's to do that. like it seems the race got hurt, he would have got dropped. So yeah, they're isolating Pogacha, but Carapaz hasn't got legs. When he's isolated, Carapaz attacks, Pogacha easily follows, and then Vindigard follows Iran, Wilco Kilderman, Beno Connor. These lads seem so evenly matched with the exception of Pogacha, who has this huge, unassainable lead at the moment. So I think any else need to change tactics going into the last week. We have Mark Havenish getting home safely today, which was brilliant. Interesting interview with Kav after where he said he'd give away half of the stage wins to not so far on days like that.
GC standings and rest day
But he is climbing great because I was sitting around they didn't race this morning. And I had the opportunity to look at the early skirmishes and the break trying to set up. And Kav holds on for a long, long time. When you compare it, how early Buhani and the lads are going out the back. Kav gives himself every chance to make that time court all the time and that's why he's coming in spent but he's making time cuts unlike the rest of the lads. He'd be happy if there's a rest day tomorrow in Andorra so they can enjoy the beautiful scenery around there, get out for an easy spin, bit of nice mountain air. So today's stage, Sepp Kous, he's definitely saved the tour for Yumbo Visma now. It's their second stage win and Vindergaard on the podium as well. It's turning out to be not so bad Tour de France for Yumbo Visma. We had the old man with a peloton, Valverde, who's going for one more year coming in second, and Walt Pelz rowing great all day, the former team's going man coming in third. That leaves us with a GC at the moment of Pogacha, absolute dominance over Rigoberto O'Ran, who's moved up in the second. Rans are 5'18, Vindergrads are 5'32, Carapaz is a second to make up if you want to take that podium at 5'33, in Beno Connor valiantly fighting today, he dropped them back on, dropped them back on, he's at 5.58. Game Martam is the big loser today, dropping from second to second tonight. Pogacha just looks so super super strong and I tongue-in-cheekly announced at the end of the Force Week that the Tour de France was over and I actually still feel that the GC battle is for the podium and it's not that brilliant to watch a battle for the podium. Unfortunately for those spectators we have the, have gone for the record and we have fascinating racing going on up the road for the KOM jersey and for stages. Roadman, enjoy the rest day tomorrow. Please keep doing all the stuff that keeps the podcast growing, keep supporting the podcast over on patreon.com. It's patreon.com forward slash Anthony underscore Walsh. It's this model of sound that we've been going with where the podcast is free. It's not gated behind Luminary or one of these other platforms where everyone has to pay and that's much to my financial detriment but I'm trying to put it out there and pay it forward so as many people can listen as possible and in return the people that can afford to pay for the podcast please do so. The price of a point of beer once a month if you think I'm meriting a point of beer once a month also follows over on Instagram it's roman.cycling on Instagram I love getting those messages from people that have been now we're on group rides with us. People have joined the podcast, where you listen to the podcast, taking a picture of your coffee, listening to the podcast, and door or whatever it is. Do all that stuff and I'll share it on Instagram. I love seeing it and the stories behind them. Road Mint, thanks for listening, ride safe and I'm gonna chat to you again tomorrow. Hey everybody, it's Anthony again. Really quick, I wanna invite you to join arguably the best thing I've ever put out inside the roadman community. It's a challenge. 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 of training plans regardless of what your level is. There's a master's 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