Tour de Romandie has brought plenty of exciting performances from young talent. We hope you took advantage of the 200 credit category! The Giro d’Italia is a week away and the startlist is still provisional. We share some initial thoughts ahead of our full preview next week.
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Follow us on the Cycling Fantasy app, @anderson and @ggardner, and on X (Twitter) @listen2fcp and Instagram @listen2fcp.
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(00:00) Intro
(01:23) The Next Era of Cycling’s Aliens
(10:00) Tour de Romandie
(17:30) Giro d’Italia Overview
(20:08) The Shedeur Sanders of the Giro
(25:00) Early Giro Picks
(30:50) Outro
[Music] Welcome to the Fantasy Cycling Podcast featuring your hosts Grant Gardner and John [Music] Anderson. Chapo, you’re in the mix. Yo yo yo, you’re in the mix. We are in the mix with Grant and John for the Fantasy Cycling Podcast. Welcome back. a rare Friday edition. We’re having a good time. Yeah, it’s a beautiful day. Uh got a little bike ride in. Grant, you were able to meet us up for the for the post ride. Uh hydration. Yeah, banter as well. And banter. It was good, man. We were We were a Josh Tarling shout out was requested. Yeah, we need a a Tarling. What was What did he call it? A Tarling corner. Yeah. Tarling. What was it? It was like four minutes. You give give Give me four minutes on Tarling. We’re not We’re not going to give Tarling four minutes. I can’t give you four minutes on anything. But uh Josh Tarling and then there was a lot. He wanted to talk about Richard Carass, too, but Billy. Yeah, our friend Billy. I don’t know why he wanted to talk about Billy. Tarling, he he’s a hitter. Watch out. I mean, that might lead us to one of our first things we wanted to talk about. Is there a vibe shift brewing? Yeah. Is there a generational turn? Um I feel the seismic shift. Are we feeling the beginnings of and where I’m coming from with this? So we had Leazge best on Leage Pogy and you threw out the stat. It wasn’t in Leage where he was the oldest in the the top top 10. It was another race. It was flesh. And man, Pog is not showing any cracks really on paper. No, he looked tired after um a couple of his races as anyone would. And everyone else looked tired, too. And he’s had a full race program. Um and he’s probably the greatest cyclist of all time. And um not discounting any of that, but he’s not the young Slovenian prince that he once was. Yeah. Um so I think I’m starting to see these young alien these the Paul Cesas. Yeah. Or the T-B Delgroso. Dude, T-Bore is a menace. Saw him on the Grams recently. Yeah. popping a wheelie up on like a It looked like a Grand Fondo ride that he was there as like the celebrity pro rider. Yeah. He was going by the am like the amateur guys that were riding up this hill. It might have been the only hill in Holland. I don’t know. But yeah, um he wheelied the whole way up and there and was doing like 400 watts dropping just going by everybody like they were standing still. Oh yeah. There was all these dentists on superbikes that are just like maxing out their power meters and he’s just strolling by doing a wheelie probably on a cyclacross bike. Like it was wild. And these young lads, man, they’re a menace. I think the biggest young lad right now is Matthew Brennan. He’s a big boy. Yep. And there there’s a long list of them and they’re they’re they’re they’re breathing down the neck of the Galacticos. We’ve come out. We’re in this era of Pog Jonas, Vanderpool, Wow, um Ramco, and Rocklitch. And you know, it’s all it’s almost like you remember those old Sky days when they were winning everything and Froom was winning everything and you’re like, “This is never going to end. These are the Yankees. This is just it.” Yeah. And then like a vapor, it’s gone. It’s gone. And is it going to happen? Is that is this era going to be gone like a vapor? I’ve enjoyed especially on the heels of the Team Sky um power meter pacing train days which in itself was an answer to its previous era. It was a it was a deconstruction of what came before it. And now we’ve had just hitters that race. I mean I love Pog for because he’s a gamer. He will race. Yeah. And he that was the request of the fans during the Chris Froom era was why doesn’t Chris Froom do Leage Baston leage or really any other race besides the Dolphin and the Tour to France. Yeah, cuz he’s lame. That’s why. Um and he he never did those races and now Pagacha is doing those races. He’s even doing Rube and people are complaining that that’s happening because he’s ruining those races. So yeah, people will never be happy. I It’s different. This is different though. I think we need to enjoy it while it lasts. Let’s return to our original thought, though. Do you feel that a little bit in your bones, too? I don’t know if it’s it’s not going to be this year. Could it be next year? Could Could this be a This could be the hottest of takes. Yeah. Pog will win his last Grand Tour in 20 26. That That’s a very hot take. Okay. But you’re looking at the the post-race interviews and Ben Healey, you know, walks up to Pagotaa and he’s like, “So, when are you retiring?” and he’s like, “Well, my contract goes till 2030, so maybe look for that year.” Um, so I mean, he’s still relatively young. Yeah. But he started young. I mean, the the the window for a career is is going to be different and these these new riders are really good. Yeah. I mean, Paul Sexus is 18. Matthew Matthew Brennan is 18. Yeah. Matthew Brennan’s 19. Yeah. Um I think Matthew Brennan his like lead out was 20 like Yeah. Nor the who was that guy? Um he a little young Danish name whatever Danish name from Vizma. I think the stars are going to burn really bright but they’re going to burn out quickly and we’re not going to see probably an alleh ever again where they ride until they’re 40. No. Like I think 30 is going to be the pretty common retirement age pretty soon. Yeah, maybe 2026 is too soon. Maybe it’s 2027. But I do think when it happens, we’re going to be shocked. I mean, to a degree, we felt it a little bit with which Brock glitch is older. I would say out of that list I just listed off already in the the tent of sus is f he’s made his he’s made his bed and is comfortable in there is is Rocklitch. Um, and listen, the thing about Remco, he’s Remco. What did I say before the show started? Remco 3.0. He’s had three major setback injuries. Yeah. He crashed at um, was it Lombardia in 2020? Crashed into the ravine. The ravine crash. Broke his hip. Yep. And then he crashed at at Zullia last year and broke his collarbone and a scapula. Yep. And then he crashed training this winter and broke his collar. Hit the car. Was that the car hit where someone opened up the door? The postal service, I think. Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, he’s had his fair share of bad luck. And Pagotch’s really only had one bad crash. The wrist. Yeah. So, we’re like on Pog 2.0. And man, what a 2.0 it is. Yep. Wow. He’s had his setbacks. Um, Vandal doesn’t seem to have he The thing that Vanderpool has done well is he’s focused in on what he’s good at. He’s matured so much as a racer. Um, so he’ll be an interesting one to watch his arc. And then Jonas is just I don’t know. He’s locked up in a fish factory somewhere um in a lab. Just they got him on ice. They got him on ice. We don’t know. You know, they break him out once a year for for the tour to France. Yeah. Which I don’t know if he was necessarily gonna be that kind of rider before the big crash last year. It was a real shame. Jonas last year leading in was it with the big. Yeah, I think pretty much everyone crashed where everyone crashed. Jonas in that race looked like Yeah. Scary. Scary. Good. Anyway, just a vibe shift I’m feeling. Yep. I’m probably jumping the gun just out of anxiety to say something cool, but I think it’s coming. Keep your ear to the ground. Yeah. But speaking of Rimco and some of those other guys we’ve talked about, Ramdy Ramdy, how has your team looked? I heard it’s pretty good. Ah, you know, I mean, um, is it better than yours? That’s all that matters. Yeah, I think it is. So, kind of a fun fun race. I think we’ve got a couple of takeaways from it. Yeah. I mean, if you look back through what’s happened on the road so far, stage one or the prologue that started the race, big news. Big news in the prologue. Yeah. the lad. Sam Watson. Samuel. He uh we just need him and we need him and uh we need old Sam Wise Watson and Po Bill Bao Baggins in a break and have an adventure and then we’re going to have Pog saying you shall not pass. Oh goodness. There’s your Lord of the Ring reference. Um yeah. So big shocker in the prologue because Watson, he was training in Andor was like 90 minutes away from home and the team calls him like, “Hey, we need you to get to the airport as soon as possible.” Could you imagine? I’m still waiting for I’m still waiting to be in like 2 and 1/2 hours in the Washington Valley and just get a call. Yeah. Say, “Hey, we need you. We need you to do uh we need you to do we need you to do a two-hour lead out at the local gravel race.” Yeah. Um, yeah, but he he uh he surprised the shocked the world in that prologue. I mean, what was it about it? Was the course just kind of I think aggressive in the in the turns or Yeah. I mean, it’s it’s super short. It’s, you know, less than 4 km. And I think his advantage was he had good legs and he wasn’t even supposed to be there. So, he’s just going to go out there and do a crazy good effort and yeah, he’s not worried about any kind of performance metrics. He just smashed it and came back and like, “Oh, oops. I won. Oops. I just beat the uh the world champion in time trial.” Yep. So, I think the other big takeaway from Ramen Dantr is if you look at from a fantasy perspect, should we talk about fantasy? Yeah. So from a fantasy perspective, if you go down the top nine most valuable writers, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven of the top nine are 400 credits or less. And I think this feeds our narrative a little bit. Like, yeah, are we seeing the beginnings of a takeover here? You got Sam Watson. He’s at 97 points. 200 credits. 3.6% of users took him, which dude, kudos to those guys. Matthew Brennan, 65% of users took him, so it’s out. The cat’s out the bag on that guy. 94 points for him. Only 200 credits. Of course, he got Jay Vine and his mustache. He had a big day today in stage three. Alex Baldin, also 200 credits. Frenchman, 3.8% 8% of users took him. 84 points. Lucky Lorenzo Fortunato also only 400 credits, 72 points. Ramco just chilling. He’s not cheap. And then Evo Oliviera, Ivon Romeo. I mean, the list goes on. And then lastly in nine is Junior. He’s even got he is a junior. William Jr. Lerf Lurf Lurf sir 200 credits 58 points a lot of value there lot of value to be found let’s see who the who the top top user is flanigan love that name espanol he’s got Almeida Brennan Watson Martinez Baldin Vineley and Romeo on his team sitting in the top spot right now Yeah, sitting in second place who I’ve seen a lot on X is Msh Bosch. He um What up, Msh Bosch? He does some pretty good previews, but he he dropped down today, one spot, so maybe he can claw his way back in the last couple stages. But no, I think that’s a good point. Um a lot of those young guys, 200 credits, sometimes it’s okay to leave points on the table when you’re picking your team. um her credits on the table. I mean, you went with the the Romo. Oh, I I went with the uh Romo Romo, where art thou Romeo went with the Romo Romo where art thou Romeo strategy and it’s paying off big time. I’m there, Juliet. I mean, I’m not doing all that great. I never do. Um but yeah, that pair of um young riders for Movie Star who have packed into a lot of races this season. This is one of the first races they’ve raced together. Um, and there’s there’s room for Movie Star. Movie Star were our kind of our shout out shout out our shouts out for um like the Decathlon of 2025. Yeah. And um I don’t know if they made quite the noise that Decathlon did last year, but no, they’ve been fun. Um yeah, I’ve got Aventipole, Almeida, Velasoff, Lenny Boy, Martinez, Brennan, of course. Oh, I just skipped off my page. Romo, Romeo, We, and last but not least, Luis Bar. Who is He’s on one. Yep. He’s a hitter. What’s your team like? Not as good as mine. So, no one cares. Yeah, no one cares about my team either. Should we just talk about the Jurro? That’s what we want to talk about. Go ahead. I’m just itching to talk about the Jurro, but go ahead. Um, I’ve got Evan, Napole, Almeida, Martinez, Bisiger, Brennan, Jvine, who won today. Yeah. Pablo Castrio who scored zero points so far. Yan Kristen who uh DNFed and sophomore slump for Castillo. Yep. This isn’t this isn’t his second year though as a pro, is it? No. It’s kind of like first in his world tour. Yeah. It’s like a watch out watch out for that for from a fantasy perspective when you see someone pop and get hot that have that first big year and they get those. It’s almost like the um who’s the guy that disappeared like a ghost editor. Oh, Mark Padun. Yes. How did you know? Yeah. How did you know? That’s what I was talking about. You Yeah. This is This is good. So, yeah. Mark Padun uh he won like two or three stages of the Dolphin A and then just disappeared. Yeah. Yeah. So, a little bit of those kind of vibes going. I don’t I don’t wish that upon Crio. I think maybe he’ll have more staying power than Pedune. But um yeah, watch out for that kind of like that that that sophomore slump after that first kind of breakout year. We’re going to edit this rain out, Grant. It’s coming down out there, isn’t it? Yeah. Hopefully it doesn’t get picked up, but got a little thunderstorm in the background. Okay, so Jirro. Yeah, you really want to talk about the Jirro. So my one of my favorite races. So, of course, it’s a grand tour, which means it’s 21 stages. And we will kick off with uh three stages in Albania. The Giodalia likes to have these pretty interesting uh Grande Partenza as they call them or um foreign starts. So, this year we’ll start in Albania. We’ve seen some pretty zany ones in the past, like they started in Israel, they’ve started in Hungary. Um, so I’m I’m pretty excited for this. I think it’ll be some pretty cool terrain. Um, the first couple of stages look pretty lumpy. Um, stage one has some hills, but should finish in somewhat of a sprint, and then stage two is a pretty flat time trial. Um, stage three is going to be another hilly stage with probably a bigger climb in there, but a flat finish. Um, and then we’ll hop back into Italy with three uh sprint stages before we start getting into the mountains. Um, probably the biggest question right now on the mountains is they are going to do the Colola defestree, but it was covered in snow as of every year. Every year with this, will they, won’t they, on a on a mountain top. So, be prepared for maybe some of those really big mountain stages to be cut short or altered or for us to lose all video footage in the middle of the stage. Um, so that is an option. Um, but yeah, I mean it’s the Jurro one of our favorite races. Um, what would what personality would you assign this out of the three grand tours? Yeah. So, if you look at the three grand tours, you got the tour, it’s like the tour is like uh it’s corporate, it’s business, it’s professional. Y um y the JRO is like romantic, unreliable, fun fun like zany. Um it it might let you down a little bit, but there’s an opportunity for for greatness. Yeah. And the Valta is like the karaoke bar where everyone stays till late. Yeah. Too late. Yeah. And it um they ate too much. They’re they’re trying to do too much is what they’re trying to do. The Walta is like we’re gonna have a sprint stage, but it’s actually gonna have like three category one climbs. Um and they’re like they’re just pushing. It’s like the XFL of like if you’re making if the if like the tour to France is the NFL then the Valta is the XFL. Hey, well speaking of the NFL, who is your Straur Sanders of the Jurro lineup? Who is who is your guy? So, I don’t know. Maybe you maybe you’re not American and you’re listening to this podcast, but Sugar Sanders was a uh a guy in the draft and a highly touted prospect that was supposed to go in the the first round. One of the top picks um ended up going in the fifth round. Yeah. I mean, after Trump had to tweet about it. Yeah. He was likeund It’s like the 150th pick or something instead of the top 10 pick. Yeah. And Yeah. So, son to the famous um exro bowler and uh head coach Dion Sanders, hailing from Florida State University. Anyway, um yeah, who’s your Shadur Sanders of the Jirro lineup? I think I’m going to say Tom Pickock. So, why and here here’s my reasoning. Let’s hear. So the the rumors of GC Tom Pedcock have been they’ve been there for years. I mean all going all the way back to his Al Deosez victory. Like man, this guy could win a grand tour. Um he’s they signed him, you know, he he fell out with Inos and uh Q3 6.5 signed him as their big GC rider. Yeah. without even knowing if he’s going to make it into a Grand Tour roster because they need an they need to get an invite. Yeah. Um he dominates early in the season with the ULA tour. There’s lots of hype. A lot of hype. And then the vision hasn’t been clear for me though because it was like a little bit of the Inos thing was like you’re trying to put me in this GC, you know, bucket and I’m I’m a stage hunter kind of guy. But then he comes over to Q36.5 and it’s like we want to go for GC. Yeah. But he wouldn’t stay. He’s going for I don’t know. Yeah. I can’t get a clear perspective on what the vision is for him. You know, I won’t be participating in the tour to France this year. Yeah. Cuz your team wasn’t invited. So all that kind of Yeah. Kind of like your little primadon. I didn’t want to go in the first round anyways. Yeah. Exactly. Um, so I might uh I might regret that, but we’ll probably regret both of our comments on this one. Yeah, I’m gonna go I’m gonna go ahead. But I think there’s just a lot of hype around him right now and there’s been hype for a while for his big first big GC contest, I guess. Um, and I just don’t think it’s there. like you’re tempted to pick him for for a lot of those reasons, but then you’re like, picking WOW for the similar reasons. We’ve heard these whispers of GC WOW. Um should he or shouldn’t he ride for GC? Vanipul took a different path, dropped down to that team. It’s paid off for him. Wow. Stuck with Vizma. He’s got the lifetime contract. Yeah. Um, and I don’t I mean, is is he their GC guy? So, they’re taking Simon Yates, Olaf Koy, and W Van Eric. So, what’s his role here? Who knows? Unclear. I I really think they’re going to give him a They’re going to give him a sniff and watch how the form plays out through like week one and then just try and hold some backup plan. Or maybe he is the backup plan. I don’t know. So if he wins stage one, which I think he could, and he does really well in the time trial on stage two, he could hold the Molly Rosa for a while. Okay. Well, but I still agree with your take. Yeah. I mean, and my take is is like he’s a sure I can’t say his name. He’s a he’s a Shadur Andrew is for that reason and like like there’s a legitimate reason to take him but like when more and more I looked at him he just kind of dropped third and third down out of my like desire to take him. Also also I’m just like a complete jerk towards Benner all all year. Also to Shader Sanders credit he hasn’t played a single down of NFL football yet. We don’t know if he’s good or not. Nope. Well cool. Yeah, hopefully some of our listeners get that reference. Um, but looking at the looking at the uh roster, I think next week we should do our patented level breakdown by by the credit categories, by category. You will notice some of these prices have gone up. Um, tariffs. Yeah, it’s not because of tariffs or inflation. And it’s just because every year before each grand tour, the game recalibrates what the value of each rider is. That’s all these tariffs are. It’s just a little recalibration grant. So, um I mean the fun thing to do right now is just to do like our off the hip. I just left the beer ride kind of picks. Yeah. I got Person because I’m a Person. I got groves because the guy can navigate a bunch like a boss. Yep. And I kind of like the idea of racking up some I feel like the Jurro is where I always get a nice bit of payback for some good really leaning on the sprinter category. Yep. Um, even though it’s a pretty usually a pretty balanced kind of parkour between mountains stage hunting and GC stages and sprint stages. Uh, I got the cat killer and Bill Ba Baggins. Sorry to Berry. You were saying though, hold on, pump your brakes on to Bry. He’s got a little he had a little spill recently in a race. Yeah, I don’t know how severe the injury was, but it wasn’t good for his progress towards the GC contention here at the Jira, but um I think it was at the Tour of the Alps where he crashed out. So, yeah, I got Pil Baggins and then I’ve got Arnman and Tarling. The wave continues. Yes, let’s get zany. Let’s see something crazy. This is your We’ve done 30 seconds on Tarling. And I just did 10 more seconds, so we’ve still got three and a half more minutes left to do. Um, and then I got Marco. Um, he had that really great win at the Alps. Tour Alps. Yeah, I’m on a stage. And is he only 200 credits? He’s cheap. Yep. 200 credits. 18% of users are into him. And then also um an old fantasy faithful for me at the 200 credit range is Chris Harper. Dude, the guy can climb. Yeah. And he’s going to be in the mix on some of these like stage hunting. Yeah. Breakaway breakaway stages and also could hang around in a top 20 in a GC stage like a the big mountain days. Yep. And only 200 credits. So a lot of value there. Look, just just off the hip kind of I’m gonna spend a lot more time thinking about this. Yeah. Um Yeah. One little observation. I don’t know if this is true for you before you get into like who your like kind of gut reaction picks are. Yeah. I felt so confident last year picking the Jurro and this year I feel a lot less confident. I don’t know why. I think that’s a good thing. Okay. I think if you go in with a lot of confidence, then you’re just going to be disappointed. But I felt like my team was pretty good, though. If you’re if you lack confidence in your team, that maybe means you’re taking a little bit of risk or you’re you’re you’re putting yourself out there and you’re you’re picking somebody that is not a highly picked rider. Yeah. And that’s where your opportunity to succeed is at. So, Oh, thanks, Grant. Um, I mean the head the headline riders for this is you’ve got Rogich, you’ve got Aayuso who’ll be our GC contenders. We mentioned Van Erit. Um, we’ve also got Jai Hindley, Adam Yates, Mikuel Landa, McNolte, Carropaz, Jacone, Terry, Bill Bao. kind of at that second tier. I’d throw um Derek G in there as well. Um Roman Barde, a little bit of a swan song. Um Aaron Smith. So there is a lot of great potential at that 600 to 800 credit category. We’ll get into the details next week, but um details details. It’s going to be an interesting race because there is not one of those Galactos as you mentioned earlier of a Pagotcha or a Vingigo or one of those. Um, one could say though the entire UAE team is a Galactico. Yeah. Essence of a Galactico team. Their team is stupid good. Yeah. Just looking at the UA UAE team right now based off their provisional start list. They’ve got Auso, Aretta, Baroni, Del Toro, Micah, McNolulti, Vine, Yates. I mean, you’ve got you’ve got four guys there between Auso, McNelte, Vine, and Yates that are serious GC contenders. But I feel like UAE gets a little bit silly though when Pog’s not there. Yeah, they don’t have their north star. If if there’s no Almeida and there’s definitely no pagotcha, then they they struggle to have that co coales. Yeah. It’s all thoughts, huh? Yeah. Well, but we’ll leave we’ll leave the listeners with a thought of who do you think’s going to win stage one? That’s what you got to think about, I think. And that’s really going to inform how you construct your roster. Yeah. And are they good at time triing? Because I mean, like to your to your point about Wow, he he’s positioned nicely for this grand tour, at least for those first two stages. Yep. Yeah. I mean, I think I think hit us up on this allows me to do a little bit of housekeeping. Follow us on X or Instagram. The handle is listen number two FCP. We’re also on YouTubes. Um audio only. Yeah. You don’t want to see our faces. Yeah. Give us a follow there and let us know also in the comments, you know, who you like for stage one and stage two. Yep. We’re we’re just going to cheat off the person’s paper next to us. You know, that’s what I’m waiting for. Yeah. Please tell us who to pick. Uh we’re just we’re just fans like you guys. This is um predicting is hard. Um and you know it’s part of the fun and we’re just trying to figure this out like you all are. So yeah, we’re we’re we’re in the mix with you guys and um just trying to learn. Yep. [Laughter] Really selling it there. Um but yeah, we’ll we’ll be back next week with with a little more detail. Is the Jurro on our uh our league, our media league? It is. We got all the grand tours and the monuments. Important. Don’t want to miss out on a grand tour. You’re going to be if you don’t have a the grand tour in, you know, you’re going to miss one of those and you’re done. You got to you got to have this one dialed. This is last chance saloon here for Yeah. You can’t sit it out. You got to get your picks in. Hey, you lose all the races, you don’t start. That’s the truth. All right, Grant. Enjoyed it, buddy. See you. [Music]