We are Stage 7 of Tour de France and it's the best one yet
We are Stage 7 of Tour de France and it's the best one yet. 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. Stage seven of the Tour de France folks, what can I say it was an absolute epic. Often the short stages are the best stages and that was very much the case today. People always think it needs to be an epic long stage for a produced ram. I've both today proved it definitely does not. Before I jump in and fill it in on all the action from today, let's just remind you to jump on over to patreon.com forward slash Anthony underscore watch the Tour de France is every single day of the week and it's especially difficult today because I'm actually away from my regular house apartment where I record where I have my nice little podcasting set up and I'm down the country so it's challenges like this that make it extra logistically difficult to record the podcast and that's why your support is so so necessary. So please, I encourage you to jump on over and buy me the price of a point, the price of a beer, price of a couple of coffees once a month, because that makes all the difference in getting this podcast to you. Okay, it's stage seven of the Tour de France and I am looking out the window as the sun is going down in beautiful Lascanner County Claire. I'm down here with my girlfriend Sarah for the weekend doing a bit of work with a local cycling club, but alas, the show goes on. I caught this hort of France on the Oipad and the car on the way down. I caught a little bit before I left, before after my training spin and then caught up on the rest after I arrived at the destination. Oh my god, what a whopper stage. I couldn't take my eyes off at all day, no matter where I was. I was making sure I was refreshing and getting on to it. You couldn't take your eyes off. The drama started almost from the drop of flank today and we had 168km. It's just over 100 miles and that's what I mean. We don't need these crazy epic long stages for drama. We started out in Milloo and we made our way to La Voor. Cavendish won there last time. They visited that was Cavendish's 18th stage when I was 31 overall victories. What a legend. So we're hoping the Cav'll get back next year and add to that fairly impressive tally. By the way, a same bookman from Bora Hansgroff's top speed today. He had 96.3 kilometers. I'm not sure if you've ever ridden 96km an hour on a bicycle. It is scary as fuck. The fastest I ever went was the stage of the tour of boats. I did it back in 2014 or when I was riding for a Stellus and I think I had 112km an hour on a descent. There's nothing brave about it, it was absolutely terrifying. Yeah, I don't encourage you to do it. Yeah, I was just amazed at that and the lads averaged over 46 today, which was absolutely incredible but the drama straight from the off and Really? Boy graces they're not virtual it's not swift guys. There's a lot of skill goes into boy grace and it's not the strongest guy wins all the time and Bora proved that today they took advantage of you know, maybe but Bennett's naivety maybe his moment early bad position but definitely we can categorize as a lack of experience and and Sagan, one of the most experienced tacticians in the Peloton, stuck as boys to work and they put Bennett out the back along with Caleb Yoon and a number of older fast men. And the Borra boys went to work like it was a team time trial and Quickstep sent riders back, they tried to basically team time trial Italian pursuit style, if anyone's ridden an Italian pursuit on the track great fun, two teams starting on opposite sides of the track. They tried to chase them down but just Borra has too much organization, too much motivation, too much horsepower and no doubt Saigon and the director in the rear saying go go go go.
Intermediate sprint Saigon's hook back his green jersey, he came…
The intermediate sprint Saigon's hook back his green jersey, he came second to Mateo Trentin from CCC. Saigon had a few awards after, don't think he was best placed. What I thought was cool actually coming up to the intermediate sprint, Alaphilippe contested the intermediate sprint and this is where the tactics of the Tour of France are always so interesting and the nuances are so brilliant and if you're not. If you're new to the sport or you just kind of watch it every now and then, sometimes you miss someone else's nuances. At times I feel it's unnecessarily complex because it's such a barrier for new people coming in to enjoy the sport. But like today, like Alifeliep contesting the intermediate sprint to the pro side and a point, it didn't work but it was a brilliant idea. Thomas DeGint, my favourite rider in the peloton, I would say he's just doyhard aggressive unfortunately he fell kind of into that school tactics that we seen yesterday from that crazed Italian Fabio Ario where it was a bit of a headless attack I'm not sure what he was hoping for he got out in between sort of ceasing hostilities from Bora and before the Ineos Grenadiers took it up the Grenadiers cool name isn't it like I said at the start this is my thing is it the Mark Twain quote I've strong opinions hell loosely That's me. I said it to start. I was refusing to call him the Grenadiers It's just it's grown on me so much. I feel like just the Grenadiers are coming It's just they almost sound like John Darmay like they would fuck you up and they did they fucked up the palatons They hid it in a crossed hill and if you haven't been in a crossed hillwind line out. Oh you haven't lived its things They were trucking and they put GC favorites into real real difficulty and what you'll notice is in a crossed hair wind like that, it's nearly easier to ride through because if you don't ride through in the crossed hair wind and you try to sit about 10-2 you start getting swamped on the left and swamped on the ride from riders coming up before you know what you're back in like P20. Now that's when wheels start going so you're better off riding through because if you keep riding through it just keeps you naturally in the top five, the top six where it's less likely that a wheel is going to get dropped and that's what Bernal Don brilliantly that's what I'll have for leap done brilliantly there were some victims There were some big big victims through a combination of punctures gotten caught behind crashes Pogakar was one of them Pogacia sorry I need to get better pronouncing his name Pogacia was one of them Lando was another one Trentain was another one GVA Greg Van Avermert was another one and Richie Port was another one the Blood on the streets There's a lot of people pissed off now going into their hotel rooms tonight at 120 They lost in the end and that is a tough tough pill to swallow very difficult to get that back Even though we're heading into the Pyrenees Carapaz for me was I'm not sure if he had a mechanical but I didn't see a mechanical it looked like he just had such bad position at the back of the group weakest piss and He just got spadao Looked to me if anyone else seen what happened. I'm maybe pop it in but I didn't say what happened. I just looked like bad positioning Pogacha, he said he tried to close the gap with the speed was really high the team gave everything to try and bring me back and do Her best to minimize the loss. It's just a minute or so. It's not ideal, but I'm not worried We'll try another day. I think it's a little naive to say it's just a minute because a minute is a big big gap at this sort of level Like you're talking about getting a minute back on on riders like Roglic, you're talking about getting a minute back on Tivo Pino and these sort of guys. I don't know, I think he's a bit naive there. The best boy-crotter in the world at the moment, bar absolutely known. It's Wout Van Art, the Belgian's home trial champion.
He has raced 17 race days this year and he's brought home eight wins,…
He has raced 17 race days this year and he's brought home eight wins, another win for the big man. Look, it was nail-own for Saigon, after all the work has tamed on, not as fast as Van Art. He did appear to slip a gear or have some sort of mechanical in the finish which deployed my valuable green points but yeah look Woke Van Art is a different level. He is untouchable at the moment. You know winning Milan San Ramo, he time trial champion, dolphin a points jersey like what he can't do with him he can climb cut ones. Oh look the man is untouchable. So he's got a cross world champion. If a kid is looking for somebody to a role model Well, well, plan earth. Don't pigeon your whole yourself. And then think I'm a sprinter, I'm a time troll, I'm a roller, I'm a climber. Just do everything, like wout. And figure it out along the way. Well, wout is still figuring out why he's got it and turns out he's got everything. Tomorrow, it's stage eight, and we are heading for the Pyrenees. Only two Pyrenees stages this year, and tomorrow is a big one. We're going over the first category called immense. We're going over to Port de Ballet. It's a horrors category and we're up to call the pair of suit. Again, another epic. It's only 141 kilometers tomorrow. I love the short stages. They just make for such hard epic racing. Guys, what a stage. To soar on occasion can disappoint. And it's the most viewed race by a mile. And sometimes when we get stages like the other day, and yesterday, to be honest, was a bit of a storm and a key teacup as well. The GC lads didn't do them any selves, any favorites. But actually, you know what, reflecting on yesterday, it's not even the GC lads didn't do themselves any favorites. The Rakes are organizers didn't do anyone any favorites, because it favors. You could easily finish the race up the top of the climb, point to send the climb and then finish it up in some obscure valley. It just takes all the drama away from it. And there's a word that goes before Soitalin for these boys and it's professional. And for your rational boy-grider like Roglic, at every point, they're weighing up cost-benefit analysis. What's the cost in terms of energy if I'm to attack here and what's the benefit and what's the probability of me getting that benefit? And it's a constantly wane it up and when you have a hilltop finish it makes total sense The cost benefit analysis really stacks up or any of it hilltop finish and then you've a descent and then you're into the valley It's just a much much higher cost much much lower chance of you getting something out of it So unfortunately we don't get action in those cases and that's what happened yesterday Can't wait for tomorrow can't wait for the pair. It is. I love the pair. It is if anyone hasn't ridden the call of hair suit It's a beautiful beautiful climb. I'll be back tomorrow from my mobile base down here in Laskanner anyone's in the county clear area You hit me up on Instagram and I'm up for the whole weekend. So I'm gonna be gone down some bike riding Exploring local routes exploring local coffee shops Hit me up slowly into those Instagram DMS Don't forget guys, Patreon is what makes this halting tick, Patreon, it pays for the host and it runs the halting, it's where Patreon formed the crowd, where a little commune, where a little social enterprise at the moment. So please, if you haven't and you're on the fence, I would encourage you to jump on over to patreon.com, I'm going to put the link there. Also, roadmanresources.com, everybody's always asking me Anthony what helmet do you recommend, what shoes do you recommend. These are not brands that I'm affiliated with, it's just a share of used and dope, so I've stuck a link to all of it in Robman resources.com. Guys, I'm going to be back tomorrow for stage 8 of the Tour de France. That was Whopper, I want to hoy all night. Thanks for listening.