Col Ferret

He's gonna do Hans things." And sure enough, he goes out there and applies what we talked about before the race, which is we learn from the front.

The lesson from Western States was not, "Oh, now you take it more ch- r- more chill." It, the lesson from Western States is, "Oh, well, this is how you become a fucking legend." [laughs] Um, and so at CCC, he attacked down the Grand Col Ferret, so this huge mountain, like, you know, 5,000 feet of descent after this, just like we had planned.

[laughs] And it's like that is a way to make a race either very interesting or very painful, and he made it both.

And he's doing this with a history of Rabdo.

But yeah, that part was really fun.

And that reminds me, there's so much that we don't see from a live stream standpoint in the middle of the night because, yeah, like, uh, typically Chapieux to at least Courmayeur, sometimes as far as Grand Col Ferret is totally in the dark, but so much happens in that-

Mm-hmm

...

I didn't even realize really that I was letting up there, but I think I was just kind of on my own in, like, fifth place, but, uh, I don't know, sort of unmotiv- not unmotivated, but, like, feeling like the lead was getting away from me and a long way off and, uh, you're just so deep in it at that point.

I think I just kind of let off the gas a little bit.

Um, the next time I saw you after Courmayeur was basically the bottom, uh, sort of the beginning stage of the Grand Col Ferret climb shortly after Arnouvaz.

Mm-hmm.

And I think it's futuristic in the sense that I think that there's no turning back.

I think now that people know that these are the splits to La Chapelle, these are the splits across the balcony, this is what you can do around Grand Col Ferret, I think there's no turning back, and I think, um, I mean, we saw three guys go under 19 hours, and a part of me wonders, like, I wonder if we talk to either Baptiste tomorrow or Caleb tomorrow or really anyone in that top 10, how many of them were, you know, quote-unquote, "miraculously able to find extra gears" because they were convinced that maybe Ben was running out of his league and the race would come back, but, like, they could be there to pick it up, and then, and Ben ended up dragging them to just these amazing results in their own right.

Like, three guys under 19 hours.

Yeah, I think-- And we talked about this in the preview show too, of like, there's no Jim, there's no Killian.

But still, like, it hero- at a full moon, so like, potentially even like halfway decent lighting in the middle of the night.

Um, great weather.

And then, and then to your point as well, y- they still spent the same amount of hours in the dark as any other year at UTMB, but for like the lead men, for example, it started getting light out when they were going up Grand Col Ferret, and then they got to-- Usually, it starts to get light when they're at the bottom of Grand Col Ferret, and this time it was light out for that entire descent.

Yep.

I mean, it really seemed like he just played that one well.

He also did a really great job of playing to his strengths on the course, you know, letting people go on some of the more runnable sections or some of the, like, he let Hans go on Grand Col Ferret when Hans just, you know, ripped open that descent

descentBut then just takes confidence too.

Like, cause we, I mean, I feel like with Hans, yeah, you, maybe you give him a little bit of a leash because you never really know what is gonna come of that move, but at the same time, it could stick.

That was who we saw leading up and over the top there.

Um, but Tony wasn't too far behind, and then Tony passed Yaomiao coming down.

Grand Col Ferret was in the lead through Champex-Lac, and then was it coming into Martine?

Where did the train stop happen for Tony?

And to hear him talk about all his experiences on this trail, the climbs...

And he said one of the most beautiful things to me that I'm sure will come back to me time and time again in the race, 'cause I was saying how Grand Col Ferret is the crux of my existence.

I s- can't stand that climb.

[laughs]

And he said, "Lucy, it's fleeting.

This whole thing is fleeting.

This moment, that climb, this race, your career, fleeting." And I was like, "Yeah." And he's like, "So just enjoy it, because there'll be a time where you wish you're gl- cl- you were climbing Grand Col Ferret." And I was like, "Oh my God, he's so right." And I just...

Yeah.

Um, but two years ago, I really, like, did that, like, 3:00 A.M., kinda, like, played tricks on my mind a little bit.

And so by the time I got to Grand Col Ferret, I was kind of already mentally out of it, and Mary Anne Hogan caught me, and I was just like, "All right, Mary Anne, like, just tell me how f- fast you want me to go, and I'll pace you to the top."

[laughs]

And we got to the top, and she's like, "Come on, Drew," in the most Mary Anne way.

this weekend?

Um, I think the biggest thing last year, it, it was kind of two, two big takeaways.

Um, I think that I've, like, historically raced a bit more conservatively and just, like, really, like, raced through, and then, like, I found myself going up and over Grand Col Ferret, like, with the leaders last year and just being like, "I feel fine." Like, "I feel strong." Like, "This doesn't feel like a stretch." And so I think there was confidence with that, of just being like, um, you know, I'm somebody who's believed for a long time that I can race at the front of these races, but I think that just as the sport gets...

Like, I, I think a lot about this, like, interview from Mathieu Mohoric at the Tour de France last year or the year before, where he had just won a stage, and he is on the finish line.