It's August 29th 2020 and this is the Tour de France daily roadman…
It's August 29th 2020 and this is the Tour de France daily roadman podcast. Let's kill 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. Bonjour et bienvenue! It's the Tour de France, baby! Oh yeah! I didn't think it was going to happen this year. I really didn't. I'm guessing that a lot of you listeners also didn't think the Tour was going to happen this year. It's August and we have ourselves at Tour de France and we had ourselves quite a dramatic stage one today and so I'm gonna talk you over the next three weeks. True, the trials, the tribulation, the drama, we're gonna talk true at all and you know what I'm gonna have a couple of guests along for the rise. Every now and then I'm gonna dip in, I'm gonna bring a couple of friends in and we're gonna chat some guys maybe cyclists. You might know somebody else guys leaving it rightly vague for now. Guys this podcast that's heard of friends daily show it brought you by patreon it's brought to you by your peers the good listeners at patreon. Now more than ever with this Tour de France daily podcast I'll ask you to go over to patreon.com forward slash antony underscore waltch make a small donation a point a beer or a coffee and say you know what skin I really appreciate you giving up three weeks of your life to bring us this Tour de France podcast. I'm not going to lie, I was rightly on the fence with this Tour de France podcast, whether I should actually do it or not. And in the end, I just saw, I was actually chatting to Tyler Hamilton. And I was telling him I'm rightly on the fence about the on the daily podcast. And he was like, you know what, just go and do it. And I was like, you know what, fuck it, I'm just going to bite the bullet, I'm going to do it. It's going to be tough but you know what it's not going to be tougher than right. So here I am a daily podcast. I'm going to get toiler. I'm going to get some other guys on over the next three weeks and we're going to talk all the drama because honestly there's a this race could go in. We could wake up tomorrow morning and this race isn't even on. That's how much drama we can have or have in with this race. I suppose that's the best place to get started. I am the last person on Earth that wants to start raffling on about covid but when it impacts the race i suppose we need to talk about it a little bit they have this rule at the moment where it seems to be a very fluid rule where if two members of the team or staff it initially started a contract covid test positive for covid that entire team gets pulled out from the race now they've loosened that because two with a lot of staff got it and a lot are at the race they've loosened the two if two with a roidder's test positive in the same week, they're pulling them out with a race. So we could see a scene where the race favourites team while they're in yellow is pulled out of the race, which is going to be insane. And also we could be losing Kilo tenants, like Tink, one of the race favourites, Roglage, like Cepcuss contracts it. You know, one of his key climbing lieutenants and arguably the strongest man at the Dolphin A, someone like that contracts it's a complete game changer. So we've drawn Well I'm even before he off in today's stage and the race director, sorry the heavy UCI, came out and he said he reckons it's a miracle if the tour makes the progress. So let's see, but honestly this race absolutely needed to happen. Just a fair play to the ASL, race organizers that come in for a lot of criticism a lot of the time around safety, around you know, rider rights and a lot of things like this. The ASL have made this happen when a lot of sports around the world are still faltering. They pushed ahead and honestly we needed this. There's sponsor teams fold and valaca sponsors. There's teams right on the brink of fold and there's roighters on the brink of losing livelihoods. Don't forget when a team folds, it's not just the roighters that lose their job, it's the backroom staff.
They're the breadwinners for entire families, it impacts a lot of…
They're the breadwinners for entire families, it impacts a lot of people. So tip the cap, shopau as the French would say to the ASO for actually making this happen. It's going to be a surreal tour of France because for me as someone who's luckily enough being over to watch the tour a number of times, when I was racing out in France I got over to see some of it and a number of other years I've got over recently, two years ago I got over with Sarah and we camped over on up to edge for the up to edge and drank beers at 11 o'clock in the morning, which is only socially acceptable if you're on up to is. The only time it's socially acceptable to have your top off drinking canse beer if you're watching the Tour de France. Otherwise you're just a complete degenerate. But the crack of the Tour de France as a spectator, it's the drinking, it's the priority atmosphere and although they're saying there's no spectators at the race, how are they going to stop people accessing open roads? How are they going to stop fans congregating? They've put in some rules, but most people are going to roll it up, they're going to walk up. Cycling fans tend to be fairly athletic, they're not your American football fans, like riding up to the top of a climb to watch people isn't going to be a massive hurdle. I still see decent congregations of fans appearing, which are going to pose an additional difficulty, not an expert on statistically how likely are the contract COVID from Road to Inspector but it's a number greater than zero and that has to be worrying for everybody. Right before we jump into this stage let's roll out some predictions. I'm gonna go this is not gonna be much of a surprise to anyone and I kind of hate myself for saying and I'm gonna go with Primo's Roglish as my pick for GC. It's It's just hard to look past Roglitch. I know there's not many time trials in this year's tour. I think there's only one time trial. It's like 42 kilometers. So a lot less time trial-oriented than typical years. But when you pair it together in a number of factors, you look at Roglitch and TT. So he's not going to lose time. He should take time in TT. He looks to be on form. Like the dolphin A, he left the dolphin A early with a crash. But honestly, I don't think the crash affected him because he was out training the next day when he was meant to start the stage. So, if you've hit the deck heavy, you're not gonna go on a training road. And then you look at the team he has. Like, if Dume Milan, who was super competitive in the dolphin A, I know he's coming back from a big period of inactivity, but, you know, we can't forget who Dume Milan is. Big Tommy D is one of the best boy crutters in the world. And his forearm looks to be similar. I don't know that we're not gonna sit here in three weeks and say, Tom Dume Milan is the winner of the Tour de France. If something happens to Rogle, a bad day, Doomland can easily step up. Then you have a George Bennett, you have Seppk, who's not to mention Ermelan Sanremo winner, you've just been, you've such strength and depth there, they're legitimately the second super team behind Ineos at the moment. So, I see Roblach taking this all the way to Paris. The other thing that we need to talk about before we get started, It's Frum and Garand Thomas sitting at home watching the Tour de France. Dave Brailsford has been ruthless in his choice through the years. I know he was quick to axe Wiggins when it came to it and say, that's the end of an era. He's not romantic about it. The Frum era started very fast and Wiggins went from being the favourite son to Elton the Cold very fast. So it's no surprise that Frum has had the same treatment. For me, it's more of a surprise that Garand Thomas hasn't been brought. When you think about Thomas' being, you know, he was forced two years ago, he was second last year. He didn't look bad at all in the dolphin. I know he was saying he's a couple of kilos overweight. But he's been there like, I'm not pretty sure he wrote the tour on Wigenswold, then he's won all of rooms tours with him. He knows how to win the tour. And for me, it's nearly the dressing room effect that they speak about on football.
Thomas is a big character. Luke Rowe is there
Like, Thomas is a big character. Luke Rowe is there. You want to keep that English nucleus to the team. or at least English speak in Nucleus to the team, I think when you have Carapaz who based off that documentary on Netflix looks like a prick, you have Carapaz there and you have Bernal, like the crack can't be 90, you have to leave at these people for 3 weeks. So I am not saying I am wearing Thomas to the tour for crack alone, he can ride his bike, like he is one of the tour of France 2 years ago. I think it was too much up ending, I totally see where a braille is for its gone, doesn't want the power struggle, wants to show the Bernal as his man. But I don't know, I just don't see it. And you've the rest in peace, Nicholas Portale, their director of sport, Heath, who passed away earlier in the year. Portale's the man calling the shots. And I think without Portale, without Thomas, without Frume, it's a very different team in Eos. I just worry that they lack leadership. And then this is a nice bridge jumping into today. Like, Seivikov is after smashing himself today. He crashed into Dolphne, and he's after crashing again today, one of Bernal's strongest climbing lieutenants. Honestly, it was points today. I didn't think he was gonna make it. So look, let's get into today because it's stage one of the Tour de France It's 107th Tour de France Honestly, it'd be easier for me to sit here and name lads that didn't crash today But that will be kind of like reading the phone book. So I'm not gonna do that to you The big crashes that I know is watching it and Sanchez hit the deck port hit the deck nia vie hit the deck Amador for any else again hit the deck George Bennett hit the deck Sam Bennett hit the deck and then tree K to go to massive stack up Pino hit the deck so Like honestly it was crashes everywhere like it ran I woke up this morning And I was heading out for our little roadman Saturday group It's like it's not really a group road It's the anti group right because of the podcast there a few weeks ago and Group roads are short at the moment in Ireland I don't know what they're like where you're listening, but group roads are just dominated by morons at the moment and they're kind of falling apart. So the group ride I set up is nearly the anti-group ride. But that's around for a different day. That's actually a podcast work on back to listen. I think it's called like the death of the group rider, something equally morbid. And so I came in from the A1 ride today and I cost like probably the last 60, 70K as I saw my lunch and mucking around the house. And it was just litter of crashes. Sorry where I was going with that one before I even went out on the group ride. I checked the weather forecast for our niece this morning and I see a 35% chance of showers. I thought oh, those roads around the niece are not going to be good if it rains. And they were very slick and there was crashes everywhere. Complete carnage on the roads around the niece and even with one point which I thought was hilarious in retrospect because the boy wasn't hurt. Isogeri Astana decided to push on on one of the scents when the consent and the bunch seem to be, let's take this very handy lads. Astana decided to push on with Omar Fraley on the front and they weren't exactly railing the corners but it was just an opening of speed. Isogeri toured whale in the Astana train, locks up the front wheel, locks up the back wheel, locks up the front wheel, does that little dance, shakes it all about and then he ends up over in a hedge and hitting a sawing and he got away lucky. Rubblech rolls up beside him and if humans could have lasers coming out of their eyes it would have borne the hole through Omar Afray, his soul and just said, cop yourself the fuck on. I don't want to lose the Tour de France on day one because you're a mopter. That's slowed down the hole. It's slowed it all down. But I was amazed that I watched on Euro sports. I'm listening here in Ireland and that's kind of the main broadcaster here. And the coverage is very good, but a lot of the base coming in was centered around where they've gone and neutralized the stage because it was wet.
Was this going to come from race organizers and from the ASO
Like was this going to come from race organizers and from the ASO? And I was just thinking to myself, you know, there is absolutely no hope in the world that this is getting neutralized. Like think about it for a second. Tour de France is the saving hope of the sport this year. This is the court and razor and you think they're going to neutralize it in the wet. Absolutely no hope that was getting neutralized. Whether the Reuters decided to neutralize it to a point that potentially caught it happened but I don't see it as being that big character in the Peloton anymore. The big Bernard Hino canceler or a character who can just come along, wave the hands and shut it down. I think there's There's too many interesting things, there's too many teams fighting for their lawyers, there's too many Reuters scrapping for their lives. There's a death match, we've a death match for the next three weeks, for teams, for Reuters, for sponsors, there was no way this was getting neutralized. But what really annoyed me about the Reuters and the mini neutralization was, Reuters is just getting back in. I think wet conditions is wet conditions and it's a bad precedent from the Reuters to start neutralising stuff. And I say that, like, what's that, I don't know who's called it was, but I hold strong opinions loosely. And I'm going to contradict myself like a crazy schizophrenic on this podcast a lot, especially the days I don't have guests on. It's balancing the safety I suppose. But I was surprised that Quickstep didn't write some sort of tempo to stop. Like Caleb Ewan was over four minutes back at one point and he got back in and if Caleb Ewan had won that stage, that's disappointing because he's dropped earlier in the stage and he's getting back in. I totally get that they have the balance saved and he only lives in Tour de France on the 4th stage so I'm actually going to completely sit on the fence. I don't know where I loyal on that one. I don't like to see it erased as neutralised because it's bad weather. Some riders got well on bad weather but then if it's completely lethal today, I don't like to see lads getting hoarded either So yeah, I don't know. Fairly sitting on the fence. Huge crash of 3km, but if you're not familiar with stage racing, if you get through the 3km to go mark, you're given the same time as the race winner if you're involved in a crash. So they just snuck through or crash through the 3km to go mark. So they will all have got the same time. But the big casualty there was the Housewives' favourite, Tivo Pino. And yeah, he looked very, very unhappy coming in, he was a nice bit of road rash. Yeah, the problem with having road rash like that, and I'm speaking as a lad who's been caught up trying to get to sleep many times, you stick to the sheets really bad and it's difficult to sleep, you have a very broken sleep. Now I never wore a woop or a sleep detector or anything like that back when I did have road rash. But it's a very, very broken sleep. Every time you turn, you wake yourself up, you stick to the sheets, it's pussy, it's miserable. Like, if we've talked about the importance of sleep so often on the podcast, it's absolutely miserable. So, yeah, it's not a good start here to reference with three weeks still to go. So, you know, I'm pinos, he dropped out last year with an injuries, and notoriously kind of blows hot and cold and passionate. passionate and what we expect from a Frenchroeder to a large extent. He lives up to that cliche. Really from an Irish point of view, I hate to create a soy, it's Bennett because he's a legend but it really is a missed opportunity, not just that his tour potentially have a lifetime for some Bennett. There's not often that comes around that you're the race favourite on a sprinter stage, on stage one, to take the Yellow Jersey and the Tour de France, everything was perfect. If you could have dropped Bennett with 300 meters to go on Markov's wheel and he kicks, not boxed in, unaided. He just didn't have legs. I honestly think it was just a pressure he put on himself. He hasn't been there before. Bennett talked about before the stage, he said the pressure is on and I can feel it. And he sprinted like a lad with that pressure on on his shoulders. When you take someone like Christoph who won today's stage incidentally, the big man, ex-European champion and he's obviously not, he's Norwegian I think, definitely from Scandinavia in region.
Definitely not bottom with the weather, man's man, hard man and he…
But yeah, definitely not bottom with the weather, man's man, hard man and he able to hard man for a hard day. Man's Patterson was second, both from Sunweb was third, I think Bennett might have been fourth and Saigon was sniffing around in fifth. We just don't talk about Tagon anymore for these bunch of sprints. I know for the Granger jersey contest it's probably going to be a runaway sagan because he's just so consistent in that top 10 on almost every stage, bar the hilltop finish. Yeah, it's almost impossible to look past him for the Granger jersey but yeah, he's just, I don't know, maybe it's the celebrity that's got to his head in the last few years. Maybe it's such talent coming through from your van arts, your van der pols, your Evan pulse, we just talked about him less and less, maybe his forearm is the same, but everyone else has come up around him, but he hasn't kicked on in the last couple of years. Now that's a big caveat with that that Sagan hasn't kicked on because he hasn't kicked on relative to the standards he sets himself. He's still obviously one of the biggest stars of our sport, but I just I'd like to see him, I don't know, I just feel like he has more in him. I feel like just the green jersey, he's winning it so comfortably, I feel like it's not even a stretched haggart for them at this stage. Yeah, I don't know. Tomorrow is another really exciting one stage. This is such a hard tour of France and you know, the Tour de France route was announced before COVID so this isn't a holy shit we mightn't get a full three weeks out of this. We better action pack every day. This was announced way back. I think it was like way back in October they announced this route. It's epically hard, epically hard. Like Tomorrow we have two cat one climbs and then we've called the A's which is a cat who which I've been over before myself And it's sticky. It's a sticky cat too, and it's not a million miles off the finish It's gonna be an absolutely cracking three weeks I'm delighted to bring you the podcast for the next three weeks I'm gonna try and keep them about this lent some of them are obviously gonna be shorter if we're down kind of transitionary stages, not much happening, bunch sprints, no drama, you know, might get them in 10 minutes or so. If there's loads of drama, you know, it might go a little bit longer. Look, it's the internet, folks. I'll talk for as long as I need to. If you're not enjoying, just stop listening. Yeah, thanks for joining me for the three weeks. Spread the word. Let people know, we're here, you know, every day for the next three weeks. I'm gonna get them up as soon as I can after the stage, I wanted to be a bit of a Tour de France post stage reaction show. You know, you listen to the next morning before the stage, but it's probably losing its relevance here a bit in two, three days time. So, try your best to stay with us for the three weeks. Yeah, look, I'll fill you in on what's going on in Tour de France. If there's anything relevant going on in my life over the next three weeks, I will also dip that in. But thank you for joining me for the first episode of this roadman Tour de France daily podcast. Folks, please do jump over on over to patreon and support this Tour de France podcast. I can't tell you the commitment it takes to bring a daily podcast like this. Please reciprocate on that. Help us fund this. It might seem like a trivial amount of money to you, like a fiver to buy a point of beer. Pubs are even closed the moment. Extra money to buy the beer. But for me, it's honestly it's two things. It really supports this podcast, but it's vindication that's gone in the right direction I'm more dealing with something. I think we're dealing with something really special here with this romance podcast I'm really happy that you guys are apart of that. I'm gonna chat to you tomorrow