It's stage eight of the Tour de France, we've hit the high mountains,…
It's stage eight of the Tour de France, we've hit the high mountains, hauled onto your hat because some of the big contenders are out of this year's Tour de France. Let's keep it out of control. 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 on this podcast, we'll give you the answers. My name is Anthony Welch and welcome to the Row Man Podcast. Welcome back, bro, man. It's our daily Tour de France podcast and today we're talking about stage eight in the Tour de France. For the second day in a row, I'm bringing you this podcast from my mobile location. Anyone that's been around Ireland, I know I'm down in the scanner at the moment and the scanner is the west coast of Ireland in County Claire and and it's absolutely beautiful, one of the nicest places in the world scenery was, never mind Ireland, so it's been amazing, I got to get out and ride the bike today. I've had a couple of events the last couple of weeks which I've really enjoyed. I've been doing some corporate speaking in the last couple of weeks and that's very rewarding just getting to speaking that kind of dynamic of want and many and getting to influence how people work and hopefully giving them some hacks for increasing their productivity, their life span, increasing their health, increasing their happiness. Because that's after all that's what we're all about, the health happiness longevity on this podcast. If we can use cycling as a tool to do that, happy days. But today I was down working with a cycling club in the Buren. So that was super, super enjoyable. But it means that I am having to improvise, adapt and overcome to bring you guys to podcast. And you know, a lot of the time, And that's the way for our training because, you know, the days we just feel good and everything goes to plan, everybody can try and but it's the days when we have to work it into our schedule or we have to make it happen. That's the difference and I like to think that's a little bit of what I've done with the podcast today. I have to work it into the schedule. So full day with the guys and now I'm back home, watch the stage, record the podcast and then get out for a bit of grub before heading on to Dublin tomorrow. But I will get a little bit of exploring, exploring around the Boring tomorrow before I get going. I'm loving the Tour de France podcast so far, but I'd be lying if I said that I'm not missing the cadence of our daily, or daily little chat. So that's why I said let's start this podcast a little bit more like our normal podcast and get a little bit off my chest and just fill you guys in as to what I've been up to because the daily Tour de France podcast, it has been that, it's been full on and you know, it's just going through the action and chronicling the action of each day by day. that's entertaining, exciting, but it's exhausting at times as well. And I feel like I lose my connection with you guys a little bit. So I just wanted to take that brief little time out from Philly and as to what's going on. Okay, let's jump into stage eight before I do that. I would remind you again, this podcast isn't sponsored. We don't have a title sponsor. It's sponsored by the listeners and the way they do that, it's true something called patreon, patreon.com. I'm going to put the link in the bio. My link is patreon.com forward slash Anthony underscore Walsh. What this is, is the crowd funding way to support the podcast. It means the burden is none one particular person or one particular company to support the podcast, but it's spread among all the listeners. And each of you making a small contribution gets to form this podcast and make sure we keep going forward. The Tour de France is an especially taxing time because because I've committed to doing a daily Tour de France podcast, all the way through the tour, especially taxing on resources and extra costs to bring the podcast daily.
That's why I need your support on Patreon, now more than ever
So that's why I need your support on Patreon, now more than ever. So I'm gonna leave the link in the bio. If you wanna buy me a beer, you wanna buy me a coffee, you want someone to say thanks because you're getting some valuable information or at worst you're getting some entertainment. That's the way to do it. Okay, stage eight, we're into the pair in these and best stage so far. Like, you would think the way I went kind of waffling at the start about what I'm up to, looking out the window here, the cows and sheep that I was trying to pad out this podcast that there wasn't enough to talk about. Quite the contrary, quite the contrary. It feels fitting to actually say, oh contrary, I'm showing a little bit of French, given how much of an amazing day it was for French cycling today. We'll get to that in a minute. What I'm pretty concerned about is, and it was breaking out of Tour de France, which your hair today for the first time on Monday's rest day, the intent to test the entire palaton for covid and all the staff. If there's a significant number of tests positive, the Tour de France is going to be off, we won't see the Tour de France on Tuesday. This really concerns me at the moment and it means you need to be racing today and tomorrow like it's the last two days of the Tour de France because it could very well be the last two days at the Tour of France. Now I absolutely hope it's not because it's fascinating to watch it unfold and I still think it's in the you know I talk a lot on the podcast about this tri-act narrative it's beginning middle and end set up conflict resolution we're in the early stage is it is tri-act narrative we're in Act 1 and it's just getting set up in the pair of these so it'll be heartbreaking. Heart-breaking for me as a viewer on the podcast or I imagine it be more heartbreaking for sponsors and Reuters, but yeah, I don't know the statistical likelihood of you tested 500 random people. What statistically, how many positives would we have? I don't know somebody slide into the DM's and let me know. Like if that number is close to the threshold they need for calling off the tour, we're in big trouble. We're in big, big trouble. We're on the two big climbs today are forced horse category horse French for beyond forced beyond the categorization climb in this year's Tour de France, the Port de Ballet. The breakaway went, but really it was a show at the front of the race between two guys, Enro Dzacran and Peters from Ajito's Air, AG2R. The maximum lead for the break went up to over 15 minutes at one stage, but Zacran and Peters played out this kind of crazy game of car and mouse where they were common over the top of the port of Ballet is together. Zachar and Kant descend for Shoy. He's one of the worst descenders I've ever seen. As a professional rider, he descends like a poor amateur with descend. He goes around corners like 50p pieces. He descends on his holds since he's horrible. He breaks true corners instead of scrubbing speed before it. It's horrible, horrible to watch. It's almost like a show to people for. We talked yesterday about showing the yesterday stage to kids as an example of how the Royal Cross wins and how to stay up front and the important team leaders are riding true and the cross wins to benefit from the cross tail and to stay up front but Zacheron was like today the picture of how not to descend, shocking, shocking stuff. So he was gapped and he lost almost 35 seconds on the descent to the Port de Ballet and he started clawing back on the last climb today to call the pair of suit and he was back to 10 seconds at one point and I taught he had Peters again. My fear for his safety was if he came over the top of the pair of suit with like a five-10 second lead on Peters because he was going to kill himself on the way down no doubt so I'm glad that he blew up over the top and Peters went on to take an amazing historic victory 26 years old he took a victory last year in the 0-2 victory now in the Tour de France.
AGC wore a knee to the French cycle and knee to this and great day…
AGC wore a knee to the French cycle and knee to this and great day for him. I want to focus on the GC action because a great day for France in one respect. But Tivo Pino absolutely blew his loyts. The whole Francis Tushio team went back for him. No way enough for Pino. He's gone. He's out of GC contention in this year's Tour de France. I think he lost 28 minutes or something crazy in the end. He was dropped from the Port of Balaise. He was dropped when there was still a lot of domestiques left in. He clearly, Pino, I don't want to do do the commentary thing and say he clearly hasn't recovered from that back injury. He's such a frustrating writer because if he has anything wrong with him, he's fucking out with a tour. We've seen last year with a small knee injury. We've seen Reuters, like I've had Tyler Hamilton on the podcast, hopefully we'll get him on again next week to talk about how he's seen the tour. We've seen Tyler Hamilton grinding down his teeth with a broken collarbone and going on and winning stages in the tour. Pino has anything wrong with him. I don't want to stereotype it and say it's a French thing but the French are very proud of this. Just lack of rolling up the sleeves and lack of grit and penal again exhibiting that frustrating lack of grit. Like I love the writer, I love watching how he races but he is a delicate little flower if ever I've seen one. Upside ended a delicate flower spectrum I would say as Pavel Sivikov, he still looks like he's round, maybe in the us are saying you know you just chill out for the first couple of weeks. they need him back because Bernal was badly isolated today. But honestly there was Lieutenant Soldiers dropping out over the place today because Seb Kost, the young American kid who I spoke so fondly of, whose climbing nose braiding up the climbs, he's been killing people, looks like the strongest rider in the race nearly and he was dropped on the port of Ballet as well which left Roglitch very isolated. So it was crazy crazy. I hope actually all you amateur Reuters who are heading away on COVID and took some notes on the descent because the sense are cold. You see a lot of the Reuters grabbing for a newspaper at the top of the cent and that's to provide some insulation from the wind on the way down. Even though temperatures today I think topped out at 32-33 degrees the descents are freezing in the Pyrenees and the Alps and it's the same if you're on to New York or anywhere else. So having that GLA having the newspaper something to throw in really insulates you. Just thought it was a nice little takeaway tip for someone because a lot of the time the commentators talk awful twelfth especially I'm not sure where you're listening to it but if you're listening on EuroSport the common Sean Kelly talks a lot of sense but the commentators talk a lot of choice and a lot of time it's watching what the Reuters is doing rather than listening to what the commentators are saying. Reuters are doing things for a reason and you see them putting the newspapers on that's for a reason. We spoke about Wote Van Art But we've spoke about what an amazing talent he is, in my view the best boy clutter in the world at the moment, what the kid can't do is phenomenal. He rode the last climb to call the pair of suit, difficult, difficult climb, and he rode the end of the part of ballet, he rode the descent and he started to call the pair of suit. He was dropping gold riders. He won yesterday's bunch sprint and he was dropping guys who can really go up here like former world champion from Inyoski Akovsky. Like he is such an epic talent, it's unbelievable and Roglic is just blessed to have him there. But honestly if you ask me today, I think Inyos, sorry Yumbo-Visma, they've been exposed a little bit. Coming into today, Oiwa said, Inyo, or I keep saying Inyos, but I just think dominant team, Inyos. Coming into today, Oiwa would have said Yumbo-Vizma are almost unpenetratable, they're that strong.
Roggach was isolated and most give other, now every other GC writer…
But Roggach was isolated and most give other, now every other GC writer was isolated too, but it must really give Roggach a little bit of panic now and most give the other GC guys a little bit of hope. Doomlion started setting this crazy pace which Yates couldn't follow. I've actually had a quote there from Yates, let me see if I can find the quote from Yates. Yates said the climate of payers sued was just pretty hard. We let the break go from the beginning but Yumbo Visma really went for it and I just had to hang on. I was doing okay and then Tom Dumilland said a very fast pace. I had to pull over and ride my own pace and come back in my own time and then stay with them over the top. Like I said yesterday this is the first big test the first real big mountain stage so why not test the riders? With the pace they set, they taught they could take some time off people. Why not do it sooner rather than later? I'm not sure what that was about. Just want to take a day with it. It's pretty hard to throw away. It's pretty hard to throw away to lead. It's not every day you lead the Tour de France. I'll try and keep it for as long as possible. Yay, throw it brilliantly today. You roll it valiantly, but again, exposed. And we'll see, as I said, the difficulty getting rotors on here actually in the middle of the but I'll try and get my weight on next week. Probably more difficult again if Yates is in yellow, but sure we'll give it a darsh and see if we can get him. And see, I don't think he can do anything. Gates has isolated, like, he doesn't have the climbers in the team. He had Estavant Chava as Derek today, who lasted a little bit, but Estavant Chava, he looks like the sound is loud in the bunch, I say, he's some crack. But like, he's not gonna be able to climb. Gates has struggled to hold on. Yates is as strong enough as a good domestic at the moment for Roglic, but I don't know, I don't see Yates holding the jersey. You could see when it started attacking, it looked to me the strongest, well, Podgecar boy in Moyle, because he went out and he took time. Then after Roglic and Cantana looked the strongest. Because it was interesting when Podgecar hit a Roglic followed, Cantana went, there was a little bit of a regroup and just as GC boys were getting on, like Bernal and Yates and stuff, Podgecar hit it again, the classic shaking bake. it, way from recover, still in the red, hit it again, that's how you know you're on a super, super good day. And yeah, that kitty-tagie project just looks next level strong. Like almost, he'd show that, you know, youth from the Oevity yesterday missing time in the crosswinds, well, there's a lot of boy grays on the left and this guy looks unstoppable. Rog Lidster's a, you know, I heard people talk about maybe a little bit of suspicion with the Slovenian national they didn't chase it you're our bullshit Roglic just here to win the tour of France so there's absolutely no doubt my mind that you know he went to chase him he just couldn't go the second time I've listened to this list of Reuters now who've kind of lost a bit of time on GC because we had Barday leading in the GC guys which the army eight is pointing out for us all over the place today he be wearing a Dublin for a brigade uniform tomorrow like Barday tried to jump him on the way in the road, only a couple of K left because Barday only needed 12 seconds to take the yellow jersey. Imagine that for France. What a historic day that would have been. It would have been insane. Barday in yellow and we had Peter's win in the stage. You can forget about it. France would be closed down. Oh we'd all have to leap absolutely blown up catastrophically. All of the leap attacked. George Bennett went out the back. He was obviously on the limit and that's what I mean about just Yumbovisma being exposed.
Septius dropped, George Benetrops, Dumeland set a big pace but then…
Septius dropped, George Benetrops, Dumeland set a big pace but then he was ultimately dropped a little bit later so Roglic left on his own. Yates puts out that for her on the way in but he still gave away what I only lost two seconds in the end to Bardet but Podgecar's after taking 38 back of the 90 he lost yesterday and then in that group behind these are the big GC favorites now left in the race in my opinion. We've Bredé, Lopez, Yates, Bernal, Landa, Gilimim Martin, Roglich, Quintana, look super good. I picked him on Instagram for a stage, didn't happen. But I got bred to a run who looked very good and we've reached the port. That's it, draw a line. That's the tour of France is coming from there. Then underneath that we have Einrich Mas, out of the game fam. I've got to lose 40 odd seconds. Mas, Molama, Carapaz, a call Carapaz is a soft prick earlier in the week and he just looks at like the big money transfer. You're meant to be able to climb. He can't climb for pain not. Like he looked like such a prick when I watched that movie star documentary on Netflix. He doesn't look like he's good for team or out anywhere and yeah, happily smiling, he's getting dropped. Don't know the amount, probably the noise is loud in the world. There you go, you got a farm opinion somehow. A manual bookman gone, you're out the game lad. He came in with Chavez, he's over a minute back and then two minutes back we've a vavar they do Milan like alaphilippe is 12 minutes he lost game over there Aru Martiness Tvo Pino lost 25 minutes crazy crazy splits like it was always gonna be the force mix up in GC didn't disappoint folks that's only day one of the peronies we're back into the peronies again tomorrow tomorrow we're gone for a stage 9 and we're gone from Paul to Lorones and we've two first category climbs with the call the call the Marie Blanc near the end and that's a 7.7 kilometer climb. This is a sticky one at 8.6 percent. Expect the same names, expect the same names to rip it up today to be forefront tomorrow and if you've had a bad day today or a tough day like the eight, recovery tonight is going to be super important. Look it's all to play for and then we have the COVID drama we're going to have on the rest day and then you know historically we've seen the day after rest days has been super important in the sort of France where rotors have had really good days or really bad days so look it's all to play for it's for us as viewers it's drama drama drama oh tough on the race tough on the race uh what a stage loved it uh i'll be back tomorrow will i be back from my little clarabese or look back from Dublin i'll probably back from I'm Dublin unless I end up recording this podcast in transit on the car But I'd be worried about the audio quality for that one guys if you get a chance head on over to patreon.com Don't put it off don't procrast tonight. I have this thing. I nearly get a tattooed on me Do it now. I haven't written everywhere tomorrow. I'm having a little post notes I haven't on the top of my journal do it now because I always put stuff on the long list Just don't need to put stuff on the long list do it now and that the patreon is one of those things I encourage you just do it now. Don't put it on the long list the links in the description help support the podcast to help ensure It's longevity guys. Thanks for listening and I'll be back to you again tomorrow I'm going to the north side in short of France enjoy your evening