Hello you beautiful cycling fans, it's stage 13, it's one of the…
Hello you beautiful cycling fans, it's stage 13, it's one of the hardest climbs I've ever ever seen in a bike race. It was epic, let's get into it. So stage 13, as with all the welter stages so far, it's sponsored by our amazing show sponsor Missing Piece, I just posted a picture on our Instagram story of Missing Piece and the custom chop board from A1 they sent us out. legit as soon as you want it obviously you don't have to get the A1 chopping board but if you do get the A1 chopping board you're definitely getting extra props from me I'm not saying I'm gonna rig some sort of competition in your favor but you're definitely gonna be hoy up on such a list if a competition were to ever be rigged they have put together an amazing competition for us so I'm gonna drop a link in the description down below but it's pretty easy to remember it's just missing piece.ie forward slash of If welta hyphen 2019, if you're not posh, you didn't go to private school and you don't know what a hyphen is, it's just a little lion like a dash, a little shorter than a dash. So they are asking you pretty remedial question and I'm even going to cheat and I'll give you a hint of the answer. What color is the general classification leaders jersey in the Vuelta Españez? Is it yellow, red, green or white? So go to that link, pop in the answer, which is red. And if you didn't know that you have, listen to the podcast. And there you're going to be with a chance to win some swag from missing piece, thank you lads. Right, let's get into it. Let's own packet. 4,100 meters of climbing, ouch, ouch, ouch. There's some sore legs and the Vuelta España today. We had a big break going up the road. had Suez from the Basque team, the Orbea team, Murias Orbea. Suez, he sort of forged ahead, pulled out a bit of two-minute lead over a big chasing group. I think they 29 in at a one-stage appeal down to 19. We had a gig in us from EF Education and he was virtual red on the road. They didn't cooperate particularly well. I think they got out to seven minutes or so. They should have been out with 12 or toward the end minutes. We had Yumbo making pace behind the real race and started then where we had the Francis the Juhu rider, FTJ Amarillo and he got across to Suez on the final climb, left him and that's kind of when the race and started. If anyone hasn't watched the highlights, just watch the last climb because it all unfolds there. Lost my Jukos and it epic. I'm putting it on my bucket list. I'll be honest with you, I knew Stefan Deniffel one up a couple of seasons, got us a 2017, the famed aqua blue dopper who's since had the stage taken off him. He won up that climb in 2017 so I knew of the climb but I actually forgot how epic it was. I don't know if I watched that stage in the time, I think maybe I just watched the highlights, I read the headline readers, my ultimate faux pas, hate people are headline readers but I I must have been a headline reader for that stage because I didn't particularly like, I didn't particularly know how steep that line was. It was really ridiculous. It was epic. It kind of goes up in steps and stages. So you start off and it hits and it looks like it's bad. It's on a broken surface at around 17%. But then it goes down. But then it kicks back up to 25% to 30%. People are like postman and up this. It's so steep. Like we had Pierre LaTorden who bridged across to Suez and Amarillo and he'd brazed past them and that was to be the major significant attack out of that break and he was really struggling to keep the boy even upright on someone else's gradient so we hit the start at 17% then we went down then we went up to 24 30% then we went down then we went back up to a 15% then we went down then we went back up to 25% and then we were flat into the finish it was epic like kilometers were going past they were taking you know it felt like they were Like, you know, a kilometer takes point normally pretty fast on a even a steep line like off the west, but on this there are the meters felt like kilometers. It was so, so difficult and then the bad surface made it even harsher. To give you a little bit of a perspective as to how, I'm not sure how much you guys, I'm going to assume no knowledge. I'm not sure walkers, you're riding on your normal bike, but for a typical ride for me, I wouldn't change my gears that often for racing in Ireland very much.
I'm 53 big ring, I'm 39 inside ring, that's my small ring
I'm 53 big ring, I'm 39 inside ring, that's my small ring. And then on the back I'm in 11.25. That's pretty much loads of gears to get over every single climb in Ireland. Like even 11.20 tree is fine. Like you're not racing if you've any more gears than that. You're like, 39.25 is a lot of gears to get up a climb. The pro is typically, you know, on a steep day, you know, you're an up the wesus they're not gonna go near 28. It's rocket because they're flying open on Lester and the groupeth owner just looking to save energy they might throw on a 28 sprocket on the back but today some rotors were using a 34 inside ring and a 30 on the back that tells you how steep it was like it's really really epicly it's a stop beyond steep as i've ever seen i remember training out in and I, not the main climb, Mount Hita, but I just went exploring on one of my easier days and we're down on a seaside village and I found a climb out of there and I'll be completely honest with you, I stopped. It just, it went on, it was the unknown. It went on for so long and every corner I turned was up around 25% and at some point I was just like, I don't know where the thought of this is, it could be on for the next two two errors and I was fighting the light so yeah I made my excuse but the climb beat me that's what you need to know for the headline readers out there the climb beat me but I rolled out my justifications for quitting which you know with time I feel a little bit more ashamed of but at the time they helped me save face and I you know the skies that I was not I was the right thing for my training but the climb beat me it beat me it beat me But when the racing really started we had, as I said, Pierre Latorre pushing on out of the brake passing Amarell and Suez and he was a carrot for the GC guys to start chasing and the GC guys, they got a little coalition of the willing together, a Slovenian, a little Slovenian coalition with Roglich and Pogakar and they ripped it up. Pogakar just stood on, no one else could follow only Roglage. The two Slovenians, they had a little awards, don't you worry fam, I'm gonna give you a few quid you rode all the way to the finish for me and I won't contest the sprint and that's exactly what happened. They reeled in everyone including Pierre Lator and Roglage didn't contest and gave the gift to Pogakar over the top. They dropped the Columbians. Quintana attacked early and he paid for that. I went through a little bit of a rough patch and then Babardee and Katana kind of finished in together but the big victim was Lopez and Lopez had put the team on the front early. He put the team on the front and he committed to ripping it up and they caused a lot of damage in the main bunch. The main bunch was very much whittled down. First we had a yumbo just kind of riding a steady uncomfortable pace. Bear in mind it was 400 meters of climbing. The yumbo pace was it was enough to hurt a lot of people but then when Astana came it was completely different. It was on the second last climb that came up and Almer Froily, Jakob Fugelsang and those boys just whacked. Unnecessarily hard at times under the sense that they were riding very hard and Lopez is not a good descender. He goes around a lot of corners, like a 50p piece and you can see him eat apexes and then he breaks and he double apexes on a lot of corners and they were going at a pace which was slightly troubling on which was just adding risk when the whole idea of the men on the front is safety. Well, one of the ideas on the front of him is being a safety and Sarah put in his safety in jeopardy, which I thought was a little bit crazy. How do we feel about the ethics of Poggaker and Roglich? It's so, it's so done in Saiklandas. We don't even question it anymore, but I was watching the stage with my girlfriend who's getting into Saikland the last year, but she wouldn't be like a seasoned cycling fan and she was like is that allowed? Like where one person just gives the win to another person and yeah it's something we just kind of turn a blind item but you know it's any cycling fans out there we know what the deal was done like it was as obvious it was playing his day I actually thought pogacar was going to put his foot in the press conference after because he looks like he's just made his communion he's 22 years old and he's I I would say had limited media trainer, but he dodged a question very well.
Thought he was just going to come out and say, yep, Rog, let's get…
I thought he was just going to come out and say, yep, Rog, let's get into stage. Boss, no, no such luck. He came out and he said it was incredible. In the end, it was incredible day for me. I heard him the radio, but there was no one following me in Primus. And yeah, so he just went, he went on to say that he can't win the Vuelta, the Primus is holding it well. So, you know, I'm running rugby just right after coming out and it's a really nice day for Slovenian cycling today. They're a good little duo. That's something we could Slovenian cycling. They're gonna inspire a lot of people there to get on bikes and we're gonna see these guys like they're riding away from the Columbians on the steepest. Now where the Columbians really come into their own is it's the high altitude. Even though it's quite a steep climb, it was at a modest enough altitude when we see the crazy altitudes. That's when the benefit of being born like Bernal at 3,000 meters is really seen but yeah there were different different class today. Lopez Kraken for me is just it's nearly to be expected at this stage. Lopez we flagged it at the start when he's hot he's hot when he's cold he's super cold. He's a... yeah his form is he's completely polarized form and it must be frustrating as a team that's committing on the front and Vinicorov as a director to just not know what Lopez is going to show up. Like in the end, like we look at the results, we pogachar and Roglic coming in together and then we'd peer LaTour down well to hold on to tour at 27 seconds. We'd vavar, they also at 27 seconds, cantana at 27 seconds, but Lopez is 103 back. You know, he's meant to be this shit-hawk climber and he's hemorrhaging time in the TTs and he's hemorrhaging time in the mountains. Roglic, you know, people are saying he can't climb and he's riding away on the steepest stages. So that leaves the GC, what Roglish with a commanding lead now at the moment. He's 2.25 over 5.5 already. Pogakar has opened the podium and takes the white jersey off Lopez at 3.01. Lopez is back at 3.18 and can turn on as a 3.13. It's a pretty, pretty strong hold Roglish has on the jersey at the moment. I'm going interject and I'm going to talk to you about our show sponsor for one second. Our show sponsor also for Vuelta and extending beyond Vuelta is ClickFunnels. ClickFunnels are a super amazing company. They're a company that I was delighted to get on board because I'm passionate about their product. I use their product every single day. Like I'm just about to send an email blast out to my list to remind everyone that we have a group right tomorrow morning. Actually, I'll remind you now, it's tomorrow morning, 9.30am on the food room at the Quantife Road for the A1CC Dublin chapter. And if you're in the Bristol chapter or ever going check their private Facebook group or just search for A1CC Bristol chapter, I don't know how much the dough I chopped was riding at the moment, but also check their Facebook page for updates on that. But anyway, I diverge. I'm going to send out an email blast to my email list of ClickFunnels. funnels. I don't have to pay the crazy A-weber charges anymore. My email is integrated in with ClickFunnels, which is integrated in with my marketing campaigns, which is integrated in my website. It's a one-stop shop, it's cut down my expenses dramatically by about 80% by using ClickFunnels alone and the thing I love so much about it, it's so user-friendly. Like I can build out a webpage in minutes. So you know for small companies like small companies who are looking, don't have dedicated in-house development teams or media teams. This is a great place to go. Also for companies like our show sponsor, Missing Peace, you know, companies that of that magnitude, you know, the small family companies. It's such an amazing tool for companies like that for integrating in, marketing, website, build and everything in together. Clickphones have hooked up a one-coaching podcast listeners with a 14-day free trial. So I'm gonna pop the link in the show notes and you can go and you can check that out. So where does that leave us now? Roglich Vavardeigar on the podium with Lopez and Quintana just off the podium. Where it leaves us now is Roglich has a firm hold on that Red Jersey and attention is going to shift to podium. I think today was the last day Roglich bust them up mentally today. They taught we can attack this guy in the mountains because he's the teater and he's after busting them up in the mountain, he's punched them in the face. So I can see now attention really shifting to the podium and like if you're Lopez you know a tree 18 it just looks very very difficult to take this red jersey.
Lopez a tree 18 and Poggerkar is a 301 with a lot of inexperience and…
Lopez a tree 18 and Poggerkar is a 301 with a lot of inexperience and the White jersey that looks like a pretty nice prize to me. Movie start you know not winning the race yeah not ideal but I can tell there's a 3.30. 3.30. I want 32 seconds to make up to put 2 movie stars on the podium. Is that doable? Very much so. So that's where the focus is going to shift for these guys. What I still don't like about movie stars or what I'm worried about with movie stars is... They just can't seem to decide who their leader is. I know we've ever had a lashing out the other day, but at some point, you know, whether you admit it to the press or not That's one thing, but on the road there needs to be some clear leadership And you would think with vavard a world champion a seasoned campaigner He'd be able to give that leadership, but when you look just cantana There's vavard a finishing in the same group would you not prefer as a director to see one of them dropped and one of them really tested Testing Roglich, but I know I definitely would Also, we have Salir, and he's not finishing very far down. Like, Salir was in the top 10 today. Like, he's hanging on, but he's not useful to them. What's going on there? Would you not prefer to see him putting Roglic under threat? Because Roglic is isolated. After a Stanek come over the top at the bottom of the client, Roglic just no teammates left. And movie stars have trade here, and they're not making use of the numbers. Like, I'm not gonna say here in the alarm chair DS and say I know exactly how they should have used the numbers, but numbers are so so important. even on the steep gradient they're important and they play a huge role but they're just not making use of them at the moment. Poggakar is on the ascendancy. I think he is still very young and I don't see him melt in a tread to Roglich. I see Roglich holding onto the jersey pretty handy and the fight for the podium really entertaining us over the next coming week or so. Interesting actually before I wrap this up that Poggakar is also the National Cyclocross Champion for Slovenia. He's the National Time Trial Champion and the National Cyclocross Champion. But that's a trend that we're seeing more and more. And they talked about it in commentary and it's that we're seeing guys extending the season with this real high intensity stuff in the winter and using that as a base to springboard off for the road season. So I'm actually really looking forward to seeing how this is working with some of our clients this year. We haven't typically, we've been typically pretty old school with our winter and getting people to take a break but I think this year we're going to look and integrate cyclocross into a lot of clients training plans and with that in mind I'm working on some cool cyclocross content at the moment which I'll hopefully have for you guys. I'm hoping early next week an ex-national Irish champion Paula Royley is working with me on some cyclocross stuff and like I'm learning some amounts of knowledge listening to them. I've coached cross-riders and the physiological side of it's one end and I'm an expert at building that engine for so-and-of-cross-riders breaking the demands and events down. But when you see the level of detail that goes into the technical side of it and that's what a lot of this course that we're building is so it's going to be focused on both parts. So the best way to get that to you guys was interview style. So I'm going to interview Paul over the course of it's probably gonna end up being eight nine module video modules where we talk about breaking stuff down like how to shoulder the bike how to mount dismount tire pressure equipment choices course selection tactics all this stuff and that coupling with the training plan so it's pretty cool working on it at the moment probably gonna be a long weekend putting in long hours on that butcher to offer the love of cycling guys I hope you enjoyed today's stage as much as I enjoyed watching it tomorrow we have a sprint stage so we might see the re-emergence of Sam Bennett if he's come through the mountains unscathed. Thanks for listening and thanks for watching the Vuelta and thank you for supporting our show sponsors and I will be back and I'll see you all tomorrow.