New Year intro and Patreon
Today I want to have a look back at the three best riders from 2021. Let's cure that intro! The big question is this, how do we use cycling as a tool to improve our health, our happiness and our long changes? That is the question and this podcast will give you the answers. My name is Anthony Walsh and welcome to the Roadman Podcast. Roadman welcome back to another roadman cycling podcast I hope your new year is off to an absolute cracker and we're off to a good little row with the podcast we're back into our normal cadence with the tour day in a row last couple of days of kind of really focused the content on strategies and tactics to get you motivated and get you moving for the new year so if you haven't had a listen back to those yesterday I talked about tree tactics and strategies that you need to implement to kickstart your new year. And the day before that I talked about why resolutions fail and a four-step plan to make sure your resolution doesn't fail. Both of them have got great feedback and boatwork checking out their boat railshard. I think they're both under 10 minutes. Today I want to slightly change pace and get it back on that cycling specific stuff. And I want to look back and want to talk about but the three best male road riders for 2021. Before I dive into announcing who these three riders are and who I chose them, I just want to give you a brief reminder about Patreon. Patreon is how we fund this podcast. And going into 2022, I put a renewed emphasis on Patreon to fund this podcast and also to start giving more value to the Patreons who currently help us fund this podcast by donating the price of a beer once a month. So if you can spare the price of a beer once a month to kick this podcast up a next level, we've had amazing success on it. Just it actually warms my heart to the small podcast that I do out of the corner of my spare bedroom in my apartment, gets such a reach. You guys are tuning in and you're hundreds of thousands to the podcast last year. And I can't thank you enough for it, it's humbling, but I really wanna kick it up to the next level because I think it's something that's worth doing. I think the, you know, a cycling platform where we talk about cycling as a tool for health, happiness and longevity, which isn't censored by the big brands. It's a no-bo pursuit of work pursuing. And if you want to be a part of this, be a small part of our community. Price of a point to bear once a month is all I ask. And you can make that contribution over on Patreon. It's patreon.com forward slash Anthony underscore watch. Let's dive in. In no particular order, I want to talk about the top three Reuters, male road Reuters from 2021. You can't go much forward than Tajay Pogacha to start off because he's only a toward Reuters in history to win a Tour de France on two monuments in the same season.
Pogačar reshapes pro cycling
Let me know over on Instagram, follow us at roadman.sourical.in Instagram. Let me know who do you order to wear and you never know, you might get yourself a little roadman more coming in the post here, slow it into the DMs. He absolutely waltzed through the races that he was in this year. Like Torres-Lavinia, he absolutely blitzed it as well as Treno Adriatico. He won four of the five stage races. Overall victory that he signed up for this year. He also had wins at Lije Baston, Lije and Il Lombardia and a bronze medal in the Olympic World race. He had torting wins in total, hardening any other rider in the men's peloton, including sprinters on one day, specialist switches insane and he's still only 23 years of age. When When you think about the impact that Tajepo Gacha has had on cycling, he's completely changed the model for pro cycling. It's almost moving to more like a pro soccer model now where for years clubs, you know, sort of not the super, super rich clubs, you know, not the top, you know, five, six clubs in the world. The ones just below that tier, the legs are Earth's not. They've been going off and they've been signing players at, you know, 13 years of age, 14 years of age, you know, for big money in the hope that they come true at 17, 18 become force team players. And we're seeing what Pogacha, that's the model that cycling teams have moved to now. They're sawing in this just absolute strong of really young riders in the hope that one of the 100 riders they saw is Tajé Pogacha, the next version, the next Remco Evanpo. And you know, I'm conflicted on it because there's a lot of collateral damage, or heave my soccer background, and I see him force-hand the damage that those other models can have. When you bring 100 riders in and one rider makes it, there's 99 on the scrap heap who've left school who've broken dreams. But that's a conversation for another day. So one of my top three for 2021, it's Taji Pogacha. He could well be the incumbent to Eddie Merck's the next greatest writer of all time. We've said it before, I'm gonna say it again. If we look back two seasons ago, we would have said, Agan Brannal was gonna go on this unstoppable run. Then Pogacha came along. So who knows what's around the vulnerable deservingly Tajihe Bogacha, the tongue twister, is in her top tree for 2021. Second, another man that you couldn't look past really, it's Primo's Roglish. He won the Tour de Basque Country where absolutely no one could touch him and that includes Bogacha. He claimed overall there also the Vuelta España. He won the Vuelta España for a record equaling towards successive edition. let's not forget on that difficult time trial course in Tokyo he took a gall medal. He's only this torrid writer in history to win a grand tour and an Olympic gold in the same season. Shapo Primo's Rodlich. Now, torrid is a writer who I'd be pressed to think of a better all-round writer in the entire world.
Van Aert's all-round dominance
We're focusing this on roads so I've ignored his cyclocross exploits but if you just look at the versatility in his road race wins this year. Welt Van Eart. Like, I can't ever remember a rider like Welt Van Eart. Maybe you've gone back to before I started watching Soglin's Sean Kelly Ear to find a rider that's as complete and all around her. And this gear, his all-round capability, seemed to reach new hois. He finished second overall at Traino Adriatico, which has a bunch of climbing in it. He also won the Bunch Sprint in Traino, and he won the Time Trial there. And then when he went to the Tour de France, he went one better. He won a time trial in Tour de France, he won a double stage which went twice up month on two and he won the bunch sprint on the Champs-Celise. And when you top that off with his Ardennes victories where he won Amsterdam gold and Ghent Veligum and also a silver in the world time trial champs and a silver in the Olympic Road race which was a super difficult course. And everyone seemed to be riding against them that day. an all-rounder, waterboy, Groider, and then going into 2022, you know, he's already smashing the cycle across, and we're seeing how difficult this is, because Machu Vanderpaul is struggling to make that transition, balance and getting sick, what injured. These are not easy things to do. Wout is an absolute machine. He is an absolute stand-out, Reuter. So that's my top-tree male role-roiders for 2021. It's today, Pogacha, Primo Sroglich and Wout Van art. I cannot wait to get stuck into watching these lads again this year. So I think it's so amazing at the moment that it's so finely poised to be in other epics and let's just hope it doesn't get interrupted anymore this year with Corona vs Outbreaks. Roman, thanks for tuning in for this, thanks for supporting us through the Patreon and I'm gonna chat to you again tomorrow. Hey Roman, it's Anthony again, just before you head off real quick I just want to mention the roadman blueprint it's the ultimate coaching package it's four months long it's four months of one-on-one coaching sessions with your own professional roadman cycling coach it's four months of strength and conditioning plans so you never need to worry about is this strength and conditioning plan aligned with my cycling goals it's four months of nutrition plans to fuel all that it's four months of boil hacks which you know I love so much and I'm getting to pick the brain of all these experts and it's four months of motivation to make sure you never miss a session and every single session you hit it with commitment and with purpose. The whole package is 997 euro. I have a limited number of places on the Roadman Blueprint. If you're interested in getting started pop me an email on admin at roadmancycling.com. This is the ultimate coaching package for those looking to take their cycling and their performance to the next level.