Folks, that's it. It's three weeks
Folks, that's it. It's three weeks. It's been sprints. It's been climbs. This is the final Tour de France podcast. 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-chevages? That is the question and this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Anthony Walsh and welcome to the Roadman Podcast. That's a wrap folks, it is 3 weeks at a tour de France, the highways and boyways being covered. We've overcome COVID and we've made it all the way to Paris. I'm honestly a little emotional wrapping up today's podcast. It's been an amazing 3 weeks and I feel like rather me being on a microphone pontificate I really feel like it's been a dialogue so many you guys have gone to the effort of reaching out to me in Instagram DMs sending me private messages and It's really been impetus for direction on the podcast apologies if you've sent me a DM and I haven't got back to you Not trying to diss you. It's just yeah, it's difficult to get back to all the DMs But it's not that I don't appreciate you also keep them all common Yesterday we had Pogacha and he set a new fastest time ever up the Plaid the Belfie and Plaid the Belfie after yesterday's stage has stepped up to really being won the iconic climbs in Saitland like we think Martha Rola, Zonkelong, up the way is called the Gallibier, La Plaid the Belfie, take your place among these iconic climbs. Before I jump in and unpack this stage I just want to do a big shout out to all the Patreons. Patreons even tipping in the last couple of days which is amazing. Your support throughout the Tour de France and even before the Tour de France on Patreon keeps this podcast going and rest assured just because the Tour de France is over it doesn't mean that the Royal Man podcast is over. Quite the contrary I'm looking forward to getting back to my usual cadence, getting back to discussing topics that are burning topics that are changing your enjoyment on the bike. So instead of sending me the Instagram DMs about how the Tour de France is, start sending them on what bugging you on the bike, what challenges you face and I'll do my very best. Especially if you're a current Patreon, send me a message and I'll do my very best to cover a podcast topic for you of an amazing guest lined up for our long form podcast on Wednesday. But I have decided also to do one more Tour de France podcast tomorrow, a Tour de France roundup show because I was conscious that I wanted to keep this, you know, our usual short form podcast and not rambylon for an hour. So I decided to break it up in two and do the big roundup show tomorrow. Also, I always feel like it's just it's too abrupt an ending. And now that I'm in charge, I'm like, you know what, I don't want that abrupt ending. I want the slow way now fading music. And that's the way we're going to do it. So thanks all guys over on Patreon. If If you haven't subscribed over to Patreon yet, it'll cost you the price of a point once a month to support the podcast and make sure we keep going forward. So you can support by going to patreon.com forward slash Anthony underscore watch. Pogacha rode 6.9 watts per kilogram up the plaid of belphi yesterday. That is insane. So if you're over 80, do the maths, like I'm not going to spare a lot of numbers because that's going to get real boring. do the maths on that, multiply your weight by 6.9. And like, if you're an 80 kilo rotor, it's over 540 watts up La Plata Belfie. It's absolutely insane. I couldn't have held a man for a minute. It's ridiculous. He also rode a completely on feel. We've only figured out his power because he posted his Strava foil with his time and he set the fastest every time by two seconds Fabio Arru had the fastest time. And he was over 40 seconds faster than the time that Wiggins rode up Lada Belfis.
Think Froome won the stage that day
I think Froome won the stage that day. And the Peloton rode into that climb full gas. When we contrast that with yesterday, Pogacha had a bike change at the bottom. So you talk about a momentum killer. So even with the bike change, he was still faster than Arru by two seconds and 40 seconds faster enough room when insane. Eddie Merckz was critical of Yumbo Visma before the stage today. Didn't think the tactics were right at all taught they needed to put more of a cushion between themselves and between Roglich and Pogacha. Yeah, look, hindsight 2020 Eddie, you know, he's the greatest cyclist of all time. But yeah, hindsight is 2020. I don't think I've been saying for the entire podcast that I felt Pagacho was going to snatch five seconds back here, ten seconds back here, and then we were going to see him on the last day, take it because it made sense. He didn't have the team to defend it. It made sense as a tactic. But 57 seconds, you know, he won the Slovenian Time Trial Championships, which I think were 16 kilometers by like seven seconds. So like no one's seen him put in two minutes into Roglich. It was an incredible performance. It won't attest, it performance for the ages. Insane, unbelievable stuff. I'm still actually, you know when you have friends or family members that aren't quite into cycling as much as you are and you're just trying to explain to them the significance and the drama yesterday stage and they're kind of like patronising, oh yeah that's nice and you're like, you don't understand, it was phenomenal, it was one of the greatest performances ever and they're like, oh yeah that's nice. I felt like that was me all day today. Today Sam Bennett done himself a real favor, boy, securing the intermediate sprint which secured the green jersey and took the pressure off and gone into the chanselise so he could take chances and even if he crashed he was going to win the green jersey. I have to say, shot pout Sam for the way he's dealt with pressure. Obviously if you can't tell from my accent, I'm Irish Sam Benes is from Kirk down only two hours from where I'm living and I grew up racing against Sam and it's amazing to watch someone you came up racing against. I remember when Sam was a junior and I was just starting out with senior and he was one of tree writers that used to really make races hard for you because the beginner category I was in at the time was A-Tree and Sam was a junior and they put A-Tree's in with juniors and yeah it was him and two orders, Philip of the livery and our unbuckling the tree in them. Oh man, they'd make life hard when you were starting out but they were a different level. But it could have been any of the tree boys and it's turns out it was Sam and you know, there's a lot of people that tank and I'm sure Sam would be tanking them the next week for this win and how long it's taken them to get there and the role that everyone's played. But the pressure to these deltwood over these tree weeks from the media, national expectation, he's on the front page of the paper here in Ireland today He hadn't won the Green Jersey Bora also Saigon's team were so aggressive and they rode so hard and put it up to Sam on a quick step for the entire three weeks So yeah, he dealt with the pressure incredibly and to come out today and win today's stage It was absolutely unbelievable I'm gonna talk through in a second exactly how it panned out because the final stage we call it the sprinters world championships in Paris and Yeah, it lived up the expectations. It was a showdown between the big guns What I noticed today is the VIP crowds in the gantry, it seemed packed but yet they managed to close down Paris. Apparently you can't get Covid if you're over a certain net income annually. Because the VIPs don't seem to be able to get it. You guys can go and watch the race but if you're general, Joe, public, they're closing Paris down so yeah I didn't understand that one.
There must have been you know 5, 600 VIP guests packed in
There must have been you know 5, 600 VIP guests packed in. be kind of like the talks to cheese sandwiches here in Ireland. If you're holding a talks to cheese sandwich in a bar, you can't catch coronavirus. So medical disclaimer there may not be a doctor. Benice today, he wrote I would say close to the perfect sprint. He was up front a little bit too much and the post-race interview, you hear him saying that he actually taught he'd thrown away, did he work too hard because he was up front trying to stay out of trouble and then Mark off said to him, we need to go back and roid in the bunch because it's easier and he managed to recover and when he managed to recover he came back up then with about 2k to go, 3k to go and he was the fourth wheel behind his quickstep guys who have showed out because cycling is a cruel sport. Sam gets all the blood, it's Pogacha gets all the blood, but honestly the teams, especially Sam's team, done an absolutely incredible job keeping them fed, keeping them getting them through a time cut over the mountains. Michael Markoff is going to be a free man in Karakan Shore. He'll get the keys to the city because what he done for Sam, it was incredible. He puts himself, it make no mistake. Cycling is one of the most dangerous sports in the world. We see in this time and time again, Fabio Casertelli, Walter Waylands, and Fabio Jakobson. Horrific crashes are possible in this sport that we all love. And Michael Markoff put himself in jeopardy in harm's way every single day for Sam Bennett and it's massive shout out to Michael Markoff. I'm sure if he comes to Ireland he won't be able to put his hand in his pocket for a point because Markoff was the last man through the corner for Bennett and it's slowed uphill sprint. Bennett just waited it and he laid back until Jasper Stuyven took it up and if you watch Bennett he doesn't take Stuyven's wheels. Stuyven from Trek is leading out the world champion, Mads Pedersen. Bennett doesn't take as wheel as he comes past, he leaves that one bike-lint gap open. That gives him a space to run into so he can use the aerodynamic sling of being in the wheel and almost slingshot himself past diving. So if you look at the final podium here, it's testament to how good Bennett is at the moment. We've signed Bennett, the Green Jersey winner is his Tour of France, stand on top of the podium. We've Mads Pedersen, the current world champion, second. And we've paid our saga on 7 time, Green Jersey, former world champion, Tord. I don't know if you'll see a better podium than that. Absolutely unbelievable. I love the Tour de France, I'm quoted it's over, but the rest of the season, if you're a cycling fan, it's phenomenal. The world championships are starting on Sunday. The Euro and the Vuelta are overlapping, we still have Flanders, Roux Bay. I haven't decided what I'm going to do, podcast wise. I really want to get back to my cadence of podcasts that are helping you guys wherever you are in the journey. Oh, speaking of which, so many DMs from people looking to get started in soil. People have been training, but they've fallen off the wagon and I wanted to put something together special for everyone to get your back move and regardless of where your fitness is at the moment. You know, regardless of if you're absolutely motion and you're taking a small bit of time off or you're just starting out, I've put together a 14 day challenge. I'm going to put the link in the boil. So the 14 challenge. It's a training plan, video series, but I've also thrown in like, you've no excuses here. I've thrown in like shopping lists, recipes, everything. I'm going to put the link in the bio for that one. It's like roadmancycling.com forward slash 14 day. That's where we're checking out. And it's just in response, it's probably stupid. I just priced it like a stupid price. So I wanted to get into as many people's hands as possible and didn't want that cash to be a barrier for you guys and it's in response to just literally a hundred DMs I've got over the three weeks saying like how do I get started and so like and what should I do how do I use a power meter and the video course will answer all the questions for you so go check that out my gift to you for a tour that we spent together.
Interestingly Sam Bend is the sixth rider to win in the Green Jersey…
Interestingly Sam Bend is the sixth rider to win in the Green Jersey in Paris. That was an interesting statistic I heard and it surprised me because I thought that the green jersey would take less chances but then again looking back I don't know how many adults like Sam today had the green wrapped up by the time they contested that final sprint It's a Tour de France that we're definitely gonna remember for one man and it I know like I didn't do it Tour de France daily podcast last year I was a little bit sporadic with Tour de France commentary boat we had last year, Agam Bernal, and we possibly said this is the start of an era of domination, maybe spun in a decade. We've a buttl on our hands now, we've Tajé Pogacha who's 22 tomorrow, he's already had 19 career wins. Let that sink in, 19 wins and he's 21 years old at the moment. We could be stepping into a decade of Pogacha dominance in the Tour of France, but it's interesting because the team is going to have to get rebuilt. The pressure is on them now to do what Yumbol Visma have done, take the race, take hold of it for three weeks, and it's a different sort of pressure. Common in as underdog, not downplaying as achievement, but common in as underdog is very different from common in as race favourite. And you know, like Armstrong, load Armstrong are absolutely the test Armstrong, the respect you have to have for his ability to deliver seven years in a row. And you look at the demands of celebrity on Reuters. Like we've seen Grant Thomas talking about trying them for the Tour de France year one and winning it. Not that it's easy, but it's what he's accustomed to being a boy, a writer, trying on hard, recovering hard, going to better, eating well, trying it again. He said, you try and get up the next day after you've won British sports personality the year and you've been out eating shit food and drinking and talking the celebrities. You're trying to affect the next day. I mean you multiply that out through the course of the year with these sort of events that you're nearly obliged to go to. It has a huge effect. So let's see what effect that has on Pagacha. I can only surmise that that had an effect on Bernal this year. Jersey winners, we had Marc Hershey winning the super-combativity award for being the most aggressive rider this year. We had Benus, obviously, winning the Green Jersey with a 96 point gap, which was massive in the end, and we had Tajé winning the mountains, the white and the yellow. Look, it was an epic Tour de France, I've loved every moment of it. I'm going to come back tomorrow with a little bit of a Tour de France round-up podcast, and then we're going to get back into our normal cadence on Tuesday with an amazing guest that won't reveal who. I'll just give you a little hint. He's a current world tour rider riding for Trek, Sega Freido. He's going to be with us on Wednesday. Thank you very much for joining me for the Roadman Tour de France Podcast. If you'd like to make a contribution to support this podcast, you can do that. And that's over on patreon.com forward slash Anthony underscore Welsh price of a point of the beer might be a small gesture from you. But for me, it's vindication that we're going the right direction. And it's also the massive financial assistance that the podcast needs to get sustainable and viable. Roadman, right safe out there and I'm gonna chat to you all real soon.