It

is.

Today's my brother's birthday, so August the 4th.

On August the 14th last year, so nearly my one-year anniversary, I was just training around Girona with my riding buddy Monty Moore.

Shout out, Monty.

After the Tour de France and... sadly broke my femur really unlucky crash it was like a 38 degree day or something so the bitumen was super dry definitely not expecting anything like the wet algae we found on an off-camber corner fast i like trapping as you guys know so i was going pretty quickly around this uh yeah downhillish corner and a tractor had just come out before us and uh yeah brought all this algae onto the ring so it was like an icing ring just on the pretty much just on the apex uh but it was too late to avoid it i i saw it coming like monty careful and then next window i'm the one on the ground so at least monty was fine he had to go find some help um lie laid on that really burning hot bitch room for maybe three hours without painkiller.

It was terrible.

Lots over that.

didn't

see them.

Yeah.

So I think, yes, it would be great to...

I mean, personally, I don't seem to...

I'm never, like, that amazing, but I also just kind of stay at the same level.

So I would like a long, hard tour.

um because you usually start tapering off after a couple weeks coming down from altitude um grand tour being three weeks so i guess you use that well uh you use heat training to keep it rolling on but that being said when it's going to be so damn hot you kind of need to be riding in the the peak of the heat um which may be the thing of even if you're going down low to train and getting into the more extreme heat so then get your training done but then sleeping at altitude or if you had the ability to then sleep in an altitude tent but then be able to train in the heat of a spanish sun at 40 degrees that's going to set you up better for a tour than i think the yes you'll get performance gains from the altitude itself with the red blood cells going you'll get a bump in your ftp but if you're absolutely fried in the heat and falling apart before you can even use that um then it's probably not overly worthwhile so it's I'd be trying to find a sweet spot, given if the tour's going to keep starting here, starting in the middle of the day, it doesn't sound like they're in a real hurry to move stages to 9am to suit my viewing schedule, so I think while they're still there, you've got to really prioritise heat training leading in, and I think... say for someone like podger car came down to altitude um for tour de swiss and then stayed at sea level they've probably got a an altitude room at their house for all i know but uh which i actually think they do have an altitude room at their place but uh and then complete the rest of your training in the peak heat to actually adapt your body to riding in the heat would be more effective but um what have you done with the i guess altitude or heat prep in the past sarah

And just, yeah, amazing to be trying to tune into the coverage as well as see... them in person again just another goosebumps moment uh but before we get into it i did just want to touch on if everyone still stands by our comments yesterday regarding barrier gate uh because when we made that podcast uh we hadn't seen the footage and of course uh it had popped off overnight comments galore um a huge story uh but i just wanted to give everyone a The opportunity, just now that we have seen the footage, do we still stand by what we said, Cez?

Well, the helicopter view, maybe part of me started to think it looked a little bit more intentional than what I imagined.

You could see Celia running it pretty wide.

But then again, in an interview today, Demi said there were a bunch of potholes on the apex, so she had to go wide.

And I don't know, even if it was intentional, which also a comment by their DS made it sound intentional too, in that they did plan to do a switch switch position one and two and you can't really just you know decide to go into position two if there's already someone there without doing it on purpose like she did um or like it cassia said she did but even if it was intentional i'd yeah i mean i have to say it happens in like every single corner and like almost every single race so go watch flanders and analyze every corner that thoroughly and you will find so many things worse than that it's just got so much attention because it was at such a crucial time and i really do feel for cassie like starting i don't know how many minutes long a couple minutes of climbing starting it with a effort that deep when she had to really like you know ruin her momentum and then get going close the gap and then try and also follow demi's following attacks for sure that made a big difference considering how close to the top she cracked but even if it was a little bit dirty or even if it was intentional which we only celia knows um yeah i think it's part of racing it's not just who has like the best engine so I think it's yeah I can say both sides I really really feel for Celia I heard that she even had some death threats overnight she didn't sleep well so it's just terrible she's only 20 years old we all do feel like equals in the paladin whether you're you know, 18 or 40.

I think Mavi said today, Mavi Garcia for UAE, she said she's delaying her retirement another year.

So she'll be turning 42 soon.

She's never finished LFM before, and to come third was far beyond, I think, the expectations of everyone else.

Now, share with the listeners some of the comments that have come out after the stage and what your take is on it.

Yeah, I agree with you.

I don't think that she was just letting Elisa Longo-Borgheni do all the work because she couldn't be bothered or she was trying to save her energy to win the stage.

I don't think she cared about the stage one bit.

She was just cooked and hurt.

The only thing she could do was cling on to that wheel for... for her luck, really.

So I think she was super lucky that Alisa was feeling so strong today.

I would say, though, it is up to team management to have controlled that situation probably a little bit better for them to, you know, they should have been disencouraging Cassia to go up and confront Cassia Celia Geri while Celia was having a media interview to say why did you do that why did you block me was that a part of the team plan those feelings like she's just so so angry and um we love it you know I just said we don't want to we don't want to block that sort of thing but you also want to protect the rider a little bit in that instance um as well says

And by the time they came to an agreement, Cassia, she was gone, says no one saw her coming.

Yeah, absolutely incredible.

I think.

I don't think a single fan, maybe apart from Demi's husband and Marlon's coach, apart from their close ones, I don't think a single person watched that race and was not rooting for Cassia to really take home that victory.

She's won some really big races, but on the other hand, she also barely wins.

She hasn't actually won a mountaintop finish in a Grand Tour before.

It's been over seven years since she last won a stage-over-stage race.

nylan knew that she couldn't extend herself really at all she's a time trialist that she knows her watts and she was not going to go over that but um says you're completely right um cassia looked incredible um on on the road uh when she came past you can see her expression of just how like she had it open full throttle the entire climb but what did you make of how demi and marlon played it

Yeah

...

so happy for her, and also for the whole team.

They work so hard, and you don't always get that back in terms of results.

So y- you do have to, you know, learn to be satisfied with the process, and yeah, I mean, maybe a team like Little Trek, they'll have to come away from this week.

There's still a few stages left, but maybe they will have to come away and say, "Look, we really threw everything and the kitchen sink at this week, at this whole preparation.

We tried.

So-

Mm-hmm.

Um, I think, yeah, today was really great.

It was so nice that we had live coverage from the start because even though that big split didn't happen for quite a number of kilometers, as you said, I mean, the pace was on, the back doors were well and truly open.

Monica Trincone, she's in my fantasy team, so if I drop, it's her fault because she was already going out the back on the, like the very first climb.

So yeah, super hard pace from the start.

Just, yeah, the Peloton didn't really want to let anything go.

But then suddenly there was that huge split.

That was another big, a big fall on, on the ladder.

uh good or bad um says some of the surprise what surprised you today

i think maybe one of the rides of the day has to go to cassia new adoma he said 13th place but to be just one minute eight seconds off mile and on a you know how long are we talking that's she took 28 and a half minutes so i think that's pretty impressive she lost a lot more time at swiss just a month ago, she said she's really worked on her time trailing.

In 2024, the year that she actually won the Tour de France, she lost 31 seconds in an eight kilometer time trial.

This was 21 kilometers.

So to be at 68 seconds is really impressive.

And that's 68 seconds to Marlon.

I mean, then you can, you know, take away another 18 to Demi and Then the next best GC rider was Elisa, five seconds ahead.

And I think they would still be extremely confident in what she can do on one bond too.

It's banged straight out the gate and unfortunately, yeah, Broads is out, it says.

Yeah, I mean, I think with Brody it was like not just the heat.

I think he said he had a fever and, yeah, some stomach problems.

So really, really sad to see that, especially with the time trial in a couple of days.

And you said yesterday that unlike Paola apparently, then Brody had the all clear to go full gasp.

in the TT so yeah I'm really upset with her especially after such a rough year with injury and breaking her was it pelvis or hip at Flanders so yeah so sad to see that I hope that we see her come back strong for the world championships but yeah it is really interesting and a little bit stressful I'm not part of the team but I feel a bit stressed just picturing myself being on the UAE bus or at their dinner table.

Like, I don't think the vibes would be sky high right now.

So they're eating so much wind so early.

Gigante, what did you think of today?

Yeah, I thought it was pretty exciting, even though perhaps Lorena's...

If you just see the results, you're like, oh, yeah, Lorena won a sprint.

Not surprising.

I think it was actually a really good opening day.

And, yeah, we just showed that not only is she the best sprinter of the sprinters, she's also by far the best climber of the sprinters.

So pretty hard to beat.

um today and you can see the riders were cooking and the ones that got dropped looked terrible in the heat um they were covered covered in sweat um and the riders at the finish coming like just cooked says

Maybe

it's just sitting in my apartment sweating.

Maybe that's what's done it.

But yeah, it was a good first ride with Dylan today, especially.

I just love smashing Dylan.

But as for me, yes, I'm super sad not to be at the tour.

I broke my femur about a week after the tour last year.

I think this is the last day that we saw of the Vuelta Enduro Amplified where every GC rider is going to be going berserk who are in that top 10 this is an unbelievable entertaining stage that is going to be happening in nice and hopefully it is close enough that it is all to play for um for the podium says who you got