The Magic of the Tour de France 🇫🇷✨ | The Ultimate Cycling Show

The team assesses the 2025 Tour de France favourites and reacts to the Critérium du Dauphiné. Plus, we hear from Christian Prudhomme, explore the logistics of hosting a stage, and look ahead to a thrilling Grand Départ. There’s also discussion on Pogačar vs. Vingegaard, route planning, Marlen Reusser’s return to form, a stacked Tour de France Femmes, and some controversial new UCI rules.

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Welcome to The Ultimate Cycling Show 0:00
Jonas Vingegaard form ahead of Tour de France 1:35
Favourites to win 2025 Tour de France 3:44
Dauphiné reaction 4:32
GC riders staying safe at Tour de France 9:38
Christian Prudhomme love of the Tour de France 11:40
Biggest race in the world 16:29
Logistics of hosting a Tour de France stage 21:28
Grand Depart 2025 23:48
Pogacar vs Vingegaard 28:00
Planning a Tour de France route 30:44
Marles Reusser returns to form 34:40
Tour de France Femmes set to be a belter 37:40
Controversial new UCI rules 40:40

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[Music] it’s the opening stage of the Duffy net gaps opening off all the time but the sprint is let out now by Macha Vipool and now Bugattacha goes to the front it’s Tade Bacha to the line and how about that first stage gives so much hope didn’t it they’ve set it up beautifully and Jonathan Milan will be looking to finish it off and it is a beautiful story written by Romeo on French roads going supersonic at the clock is green he’s fighting for every second here i reckon he had no special skin suit on there too as well i was looking at details i don’t think he wanted to smash it what a win for Jake Stewart riding himself back up the standings in the Dini and the modern champion of champions win stage six of the Dina Tugacha maybe deciding that the best all move is attacking it’s the allconquering Pane Patcha we all know Lenny Martinez coming right around making his move win number three of the season on the world tour and it’s the overall race win at the Dofine for the Slovenian superstar oh my life criterium the Duffina are we excited about the tour to France after that well I knew I’m going to do this do you know what I am but I’m more excited about Jonas i think at the tour Jonas is what is it till the final week seven weeks until the final week of the tour question are still a long time I think for Jonas to come in shape so I think Tadai is good like he always is but I still I just see a little bit of Yonas still edging him out in that final week see I I agree i like I don’t know how it will go in the conversation i think a lot of the chat around the DF has been oh here we go again pagatar is going to dominate he’s going to be unbeatable but I do think that Visma time these things very well and they know that Yunas has to peak for the tour to France he’s still coming back from his crash his numbers we understand are better than ever um and we don’t have mountains until what like proper mountains until stage 12 so you know you’ve got to factor all of that in and I think that Yonas is looking like he’s on the right path so but maybe I’m just glass half and getting excited maybe behind the scenes he can be very quietly confident and thinking this is fine i mean that first opening stage I think gave us all such excitement the way it unfolded bam stage one doofane and we’ve already got such a a great exciting entertaining stage i mean I guess the time trial certainly changed things didn’t it with the the general classification and tad with the That’s my big one is the time trial is that Tad lost time but you said then Tad maybe not in every little bit of kit available yeah you know I I think Yonas I think he will go into his last little block here between now and the tour to France confident because I think we know Tad’s at a very very high level but Jonas is at a good level as well and the other thing as well is their full tour to France teams weren’t on show there now you put in Simon Yates you put in Almeida you put in a stressful first eight nine days of the tour to France as we know anything can happen but this is a this is the first time for a few years we’ve gone into western France north northwestern France which does change the dynamic of the tour a little bit it it makes it a lot more stressful and especially this first nine days it’s like nine one day races which we know anything can happen so who then would that favor in terms of not just the riders but their teams between those two in particular because we’re looking at them first and foremost well with T he is very he’s all like one day he’s a pretty bike rider he’s a pretty complete park rider so I think personally that’s certainly not I’m trying to add some J throw me the only thing I’d say about that is I’d say for a one-day race Fisma’s got a better team well listen yeah for a leader in a one-day race TAD is the better leader so it’s really Is that enough to balance it out i’ Let’s hope so and then and then there’s things you can control and things you can’t at France it’s 190 crazy men fighting for stages day in day out and yes they said you can ride better position you can have good teammates but you can’t control everything so when you watch the criterium dofane at the end of all of it what did you think as um as a teaser for the tour to France because an awful lot of people are saying like I say that’s it typar it’s his to lose what was your take away from the Dufane i think those two are clearly a step above uh the others i think Remco will improve as well he’s also coming back from uh some adversity but those two and those two teams should dominate too that’s one part of it the other one there which I was quite impressed was obviously Jonathan Milan um he’s going to be the man to beat in the sprints I think this year uh the Dolphin A is not an easy race for a man so big and I think but I think it was great preparation and he’s had a good rest after a really good spring but I think the way that they’re going to structure the team there at Trek he will be the man to beat for the green jersey and also for uh for multiple stages i think just the way they bring a team together it doesn’t matter which rider it is we saw it already in the jural the way they rally around one leader I think is exceptional and they they did that on on the day when Jonathan Milan won the stage in the doofan he was distanced they all waited they all brought him back what I’m interested is Vanderpole i think as Matt said there first like one day races for the first 9 10 days vanderpole can rip that race apart on his own and I think with Philips there it’s how much he’s able to do that because I think obviously they want him for the sprint stages philipsson may be going for green but I just think Vanderpol’s got a great opportunity in this tour to try and get that green jersey in the first 10 days especially so it’s what he can do to challenge that and I think that might be the pressure put on Tre shoulders a little bit have they stated yet what the aim is for Albusend Kernig at the Trade to France because I always find it intriguing that Vulnerable is so often there yeah every now and again to be able to go for his stages but primarily really in support of Yasper Phillips other than if it is a stage that’s nailed on for him have they said whether Matio can be going for green over a Yasper i don’t think they ever do does he no no they keep it pretty tight lips but there’s definitely stages that suit Matthew more in the first week and then the other one is there is Kaden Groves is coming in in a leadout role which we haven’t seen before so that’s a it’s a combination that I’ve never seen the three of them together working for the same goal so that’s also who’s going to be the last lead out man vanderpole Kaden you think probably I would think Kaden i think Matthew would be he would be the man to put them into position cuz he’s such a freak of nature that he that he can move move very far and very long much vulnerable and Kaden Groves is your lead man it’s not bad it’s not bad it’s going to have to be that’s insane isn’t it that’s going to have to be to go headtohead with trick it’s going to have to be i’m really intrigued by that though cuz I There’s a difference between a sprinter doing a lead out and a Vanderpole doing a lead out sometimes it can go wrong sometimes so I’d be very intrigued to see Kaden can definitely do it but if it’s asive let’s not because Vanderpool’s also like a pilot he sort of he finds that line and then Yasper is able to follow but as a like a traditional sort of one off after the other i don’t know how that work i think if Vanderpole’s doing that lead out and he hits the front I was being doing last man that to hold that power even on the wheel for that amount of time for Caden probably fine then for Yasper to hold on to it for another 15 20 seconds that’s a long time at 800 900 watts so it really depends how they adapt to this because it might just go we’re too fast if we to write headlines in advance and simplify things are we looking at reasonably having the best team and UAE having the strongest rider i don’t simple as that i think individually UAE have got the best team if you look at it individuals in that team but as a team I think as a team VMR have got it together a little bit more i think they’ve got confidence in what Yonas can do where it’s very strategic i think with TAD it’s just getting to a point i don’t think there’s much strategy around it apart from TAD can win today if we get to that point i think with Visma it’ll be this day we need to do this that day we need to do this whereas I think UAE are always we can win today let’s try and set this up so I just see the way that they approach things is very very different and I think that’ll be the benefit to Visma in the end what are we going to see in the first 12 days when when we haven’t really got that GC battle yet what are we going to see from the two teams is it just a case of staying as safe as possible yeah very much i say just it’s a big task it is a big task especially in northwestern France so yeah there’ll be races unfolding for the stage and there’ll be races a lot of those stages Bismar will just be happy to get Yonas through unscathed every day i was going is this still a thing where it’s I know you like get through safe the way Tad races it’s like I said it’s an opportunity every day crosswind let’s give it a go we can take some time if we can certainly not afraid yeah there back in the day it was you think he’s not going to try to stay safe he’s going to chip away whenever he can well I think any if we look at any GC rider now we we always have in our head they need to stay safe until it gets to the mountains tad is completely the opposite he’s like there’s a chance let’s take some time let’s take some as much as we can from that one day so it’s I don’t know i think for Visma it might be a case of just keep an eye on TAD stay safe but just don’t lose any time because also with TAD like traditionally you would think a GC rider you will stay safe and then conserve as much as you can for whenever the race really kicks off with TD though look at the way he raced to Jirro last year he just chipped at time constantly constantly constantly you’re thinking he can’t possibly keep this up and he did and then he kept it up all the way through the tour to France so I think with him it’s such a different proposition but Visma can’t be going into this and they will not be going into this thinking how to beat Tanny Pagach will they’ll thinking how does you and us win which is different yeah yeah definitely they race their own race i’d be surprised if we get So we’re sitting here on the first rest day of the tour to France and Ted hadn’t won a stage i’d be very surprised we can’t just talk about the top two though who else are we looking at god knows that definitely definitely what’s to say that Almea can’t finish on the podium adam Yates yeah well we saw it with UAE before where two of them finish in the podium you know that still could happen in third um 40 years of this year since France had a winner i should probably flies doesn’t it i’ll take it that be broken yet yeah I know i thought so definitely actually when was I’m thinking podium’s podium’s at least a decade that’s a that’s near on a decade without a podium who’s the next big French hook then what’ you say the young guy paul Sexus that’s a That’s a couple of years down the Cuz he’s what 19 not yet not yet 19 first year out of juniors oh my goodness yeah no he he’s a big big talent and what we’ve seen this year is they need to keep him invest him look after him long term because as we know he has cycling mad countries Belgium France especially he will uh he’ll come under a lot of pressure soon enough yeah being the next replacement to win 40 plus years on yeah exactly so for the French he’s a good one [Music] [Music] yetch for France director Fundament Best etch fore basket um for Florence telephone absolutely director it’s it’s literally being a politician who loves cycling oh it’s a big job well it’s an institution it’s French institution the tour to France global as well though isn’t it well it is global but it’s Yeah it’s the biggest well as we know it’s the biggest annual sporting event in the world and the whole country stops and a lot of the world stops to watch it it’s really funny as well cuz my my husband’s family are French right so they’re all um in France or in Morocco but even the French family in Morocco were really you know they’ve got that Frenchness very close to them and and that’s whenever I started seeing it through their eyes that’s when I realized what it means to French people because they don’t follow cycling at all for the rest of the year and it is such an event it’s like you know we grew up with say Wimbledon for example and all of a sudden you’re an absolute avid fan of tennis for a couple of weeks in the summer go buy a tennis racket yeah go down to local court and practice like they’re all just completely obsessed with it to the extent that you know by the end of the tour to France they’re all complete experts they know who all the writers are they know what everything that’s going on and then they forget about it for the rest of the year but it it it’s such a part of their cultural identity i think it’s mad do you know like you’ll have seen this when you’re in the car as well you’ll drive past a certain spot middle of nowhere and it’ll be on a roundabout and someone will have a table out a gazebo out they’ll have all the wine the beets and everything it’s like that it goes past for maybe a minute the actual race they’ve had a full day out of it and I’m I always go past the build up that’s the most fun yeah of course it is of course it is but it’s the fact that the buildup to what they’re watching is like by the time I’ve been speaking it’s gone what’s really funny as well is like you’re building up to it so much as you’re watching that whenever the writers come past you’re like oh my god we can’t talk or whoever it might be as though that’s a shock that they exist in real life stand there all day waiting for them and when they come it’s like the hysteria of all of it it’s amazing but I just wonder in the middle of the sport whether you’ve had much of a chance to actually stand there amongst the fans and know what it is like from the side of the road because it’s a completely different experience oh it is being in the mix zone actually I have the last couple of years I’ve done some bottle points amazing yeah which has been Yeah interesting because the first 10 or 15 years it was just in the team car and you are in a bit of a cocoon there and or a big fishbowl actually but no it’s uh it was pretty crazy to see the fans on some of those mountain passes and how every days some of those yeah what was your first experience like whenever you were doing the bottles for the first time stepping out of the team car and seeing it from the other side uh no one’s getting a feed here well the the tour is it’s such a different race as well because it doesn’t matter where you are there’s crowds everywhere so it’s it’s a it’s a lot more stressful um and parking on those mountain passes is quite hard to find a parking sometimes you got to walk a kilometer up to your point there or whatever but no I think it is it is a spectacle it definitely is a spectacle and to see it from the outside was was interesting yeah parking is difficult having a Wii is even harder well I I remember I remember one of my first years as a director I had a uh CEO from a big company in the car with me and as men we don’t think about it in a six-hour stage so we’d stopped a couple of times and I offered this this lady drinks all day and I was wondering about 3 hours in i’d had a couple of drinks and she hadn’t touched anything and it was an I remember it was it was an Aldu stage of the tour to France and uh we were getting closer and we’d stopped two or three times for a nature break and uh then it clicked in hour number six and a little bit uncomfortable and she started to say goodbye to me about 3 km from the finish and as soon as we pulled into the deviation yeah she did she’d already said goodbye she’d already thanked me and she was out of there and I know exactly why but she’d been well advised She’s been well advised she didn’t touch a drop of fluid while she dangerous while she in the car I was pregnant in the back of a was it still Team Sky at the time whenever Garant Thomas won up Alz and we were in the climb just before we got to Alto and because when you’re pregnant you have to weigh an awful lot more often we stopped so that they could hand out some bottles and as soon as we got out I was like “Oh my god where can I find a toilet on this mountain side?” And of course it’s lined with people so it’s not even like go for a wild we anywhere it was completely exposed completely barren i’m running up and down this road trying to find anything anyway I don’t know if you know this organization that follows the tour to France around encouraging people to fish something dubish and I always thought it was like a Christian thing because of the connection with fishing it’s not it’s literally encouraging people to fish anyway there was this fishing stall in the middle of a mountain that had a curtain and a bucket of sand behind it perfect yeah so I was like “Please can I use your bucket of and it was the most satisfying we’ve ever imagine imagine for that that day.” That very grateful what I find really fascinating about the tour though and you don’t understand it unless you’ve worked on it in some way predom said there there is no venue there is no there are no stadia but they impose this infrastructure every single day and so if you were to turn up to a start village or or finish village you think oh this is this is what it looks like all of that comes down and it’s completely empty within a couple of hours and it moves onto the back of a truck and it goes on to the next place while the Stark village has been dismantled in a in a start area and then be moved along as well the logistics involved in all of it are absolutely insane and so impressive then when you get to a stage finish for example and you’re there maybe a good couple of hours before the stage finishes all of those truck drivers all of those who are part of that logistical circus circus they’re there in their their hammocks sleeping if you go to sort of like the far end in the meantime they’ve done the washing they’ve got a little washing line out the their washing’s dry while the stage is on they’re getting some some sleep meanwhile all of this action is is unraveling and they wake up pack it all away it’s quite incredible really it’s such a brilliant advert for the country as well like so I I lived in France and studied there whenever I was 20 21 and in the few years afterwards I kind of fell out of love with France a little bit you know when you get too close to a country but you’re not quite a part of it and so I I sort of fell out of love with France for a long time until I got back into covering cycling and then traveling around with the tour to France and it brings you into parts of France that are so romantic and historic and so beautiful it’s just the best postcard for and that you wouldn’t naturally see exactly exactly no because we did the tour to France goes to a lot of the same places or similar areas but there’s also parts of the tour to France that the Ardash went through the Ardash a few years not go to that you would not go to where the heck are we beautiful beautiful yeah yeah yeah i almost booked a holiday almost did almost did yeah well at 2019 when we went out for Eurosport that was my first year covering up for Euro Sport and I can’t remember exactly where we were it was sort of it was sort of south central France but then went back to Amsterdam afterwards jumped in the camper van came straight back again on holiday yeah yeah straight away can’t remember where that is [Music] for polit Fore foreign foreign [Music] fore foreign foreign [Music] montana [Music] uh [Music] [Music] and here we go ramping into it watch the percentages suddenly start to kick up oh look at this oh amazing [Music] fore onch fore here he goes and Yodas Vingor now suddenly’s on the defensive and it is Pugatcha who’s been hit will it be Vingore will it be Pugatcha and look at that and here goes Patcha and that’s it and Vingor playing at his own game look at this the tour of France is set up to perfection extraordinary security department don’t [Applause] wins the tour in the greatest star we’ve ever seen do you know it’s really funny when we think of a comparison between cycling and any other sport it’s like being able to change the size of the football pitch or change the dimensions like the way in which you can really not decide but help determine shape who wins a tour to France who goes down in history is down to the course that’s designed you know how how many kilometers of time trial how many long ste like grinding climbs you have compared to short punching you know the fact that all of that from the outside you forget you know for for people outside of cycling they don’t realize the ways in which each year’s course decides who wins it it sounds like UAE paid the ASO quite a lot of money because there’s a lot of steep punchy climbs one rider but that’s the thing though well it is a massive thing and I think ultimately what we heard there was he wants it to be exciting because you can get the long days the long climbs you can get the punchy climbs that are just at the finish or it might be too hard to not the full pelatons contesting it i think the Jro this year did it fantastically where there’s just enough stages and just hard enough where it might be a sprint might not be a sprint really long climbs whatever it might be but I think what they’re trying to do at the top of France this year is just make it a spectacle and so entertaining for us to watch because it’s coming into those final bits where it’s the short times not big gaps are being taken sprinters might be there they might not be there but what’s entertaining close competition so if it is a rate but if it is a rate that suits Patcha way like for example you know if you got lots of punchy short climbs that’s not necessarily entertaining like it has to depend on the qualities and the and the skills of the riders involved doesn’t it as well yes and then the other one is time trolling as well we haven’t seen long time for for long time and team time trials for that team trials yeah thank god yeah i love a teen time yeah cuz you two have never ridden one there’s definitely a place I think for some of the longer time trials though or or more time trial and kilometers if we’re trying to find the best allround cycler they used to have like Al’s time trial when Armstrong was winning up there mon we’ll go on this year stuff we go on this year and then finally thanks they brought it back yeah just link that way there that’ll be a good one that will be a good one they want entertainment they want nerves they want stress but also it can backfire as well you know imagine if the first week of the tour in France if one of the two big favorites crashed out exactly then you get a one-sided a one-sided tour you know or I think last year uh when Ted just totally bossed the Jirro I heard with television that the the ratings actually fell off in the second half of the race because one there was no Italian fighting for a pony and two the race was over yeah yeah when someone’s 5 minutes 5 minutes up the road going into the second half of the race some people switch off whereas the tour generally it’s a a closer fought battle because the gaps aren’t as big traditionally and I wonder if taking out those longer or not having as many longer mountain stages on on those alpine climbs for example it maybe limits the time loss having shorter steep climbs you’re not going to gain as much i love a long climb you know the kinds of day as a fan where it’s as hot as it is today right and you stick on the tour to France and you watch a breakaway form and then you go off and you do your thing and you can hear the commentary in the background like t cricket exactly exactly though and it’s not too intrusive and every time somebody raises their voice you run back in again and you hear what’s going on and you think to yourself “Oh I could have a little nap.” You lie down in the sofa and you have a cheeky little nap i like to watch TV while I sleep is what you say i love it but then the crescendo of the commentary wakes you up just at the right time and you feel like you’ve had a friend for the day you know you’ve had company and I just No I’m not sad [Music] everyone just looking around really good moment to go here marl and Royster are going on the attack royster and Bering just looking around at each other it’s going to come down to the throw between Roy marlon Royster what and her choice words in a postra interview was that when she’s annoyed at the line of questioning her no no no about Yeah yeah our leading group has split amber goes to a bit for glory here cassie Dmer that ups the tempo makes the move it’s up to Maron Royer now to do the work it’s the elbow a solo win for Amber Crack as she takes stage two 100 meters to go misha Bradenald is still there release had to go good to see her running through the throw to the line so the yellow jersey now makes a big move take a bow marlon Royster takes the general classification for the second time in her career with a phenomenal show of strength i mean that was phenomenal wasn’t it and I feel like after Burgos the whole thing was well Damy isn’t here you know we don’t have the same field as we’re going to have for the rest of the year and there she’s against all the big hitters and smashes it brilliant it’s wonderful and I think I know she hates people talking about it and she said it in so many interviews post race about of course what she went through last year with illness and having to to overcome that but it’s so nice to see that you’ve got another general classification contender thrown into the mix and even one stage she was sprinting against Damy and there was nothing on offer it wasn’t for the stage win or anything but it was almost just like got me uphand there yeah and you were saying about her post-race comments then yeah I think she was of course they’ve been teammates as well so she know Men Royce knows Deami Vering and the way that she races very well and and also behind the scenes what it’s like on the on the team bus within the team on on training camps etc but for her she was quite choice about her words saying you I think she almost panics under a bit of the pressure she’s not really thinking as a leader you know what a leader strengths are as a domestique you know what domestique strengths are but as a domestique not as a race leader so when that changes it might take a little bit of getting used to and trying to understand that rider a bit more and I can imagine for Demi it might have been like a yeah I know I know how good she’s going i know how good she can be going but I’ve probably got the upper hand cuz I’ve always had the upper hand maybe it’s great for everybody the fact that we’ve got another rider up there Cassia Nuvia is looking in superb form building very well a great training camp over in in Boulder um combining a bit of off bikes uh private life stuff as well just enjoying time with with family and a training camp but then also for Damian maybe it’s maybe it’s a good thing where’s it can be a good thing i mean you can you can learn from from losing yeah oh trust me you can well they always say quite easily they always say you learn more from losing than you ever do from winning but what I love as well is that we hoped that breaking up the SD works dominance would lead to excitement across the course of the season and we’re seeing it already you know and the fact that Marlon Mory would never have had this leadership opportunity I don’t think if she was still at SD works and the fact that you have her up against Amy Vering you know we’re not even looking at Anna Vander yet we’re not even looking at as you say lots of Capeek um Cassie Eva right up there i think the Trader Fans fam this year is set to be an absolute bloody stomper i think it’s going to be amazing because it’s not like the men’s race where you’ve got two riders head and shoulders above all the rest yeah you’ve got five riders who could easily be the winner of the race you know it’s like an achievement for the men’s yeah and the teams are a lot more even across the board now which wasn’t the case three years ago yeah exactly five five quite strong teams now but the depth is spread out and it is making for exciting racing um do we have a favorite then for the Judah fans fam cuz I don’t think I can call it i’m really intrigued with Keki really intrigued still because she’s not shown herself in a long time racing yeah be very very intrigued to see how she Yeah at the start of the season she was my pick for for the for the overall GC um for me but see is that based on Quebec being Quebec probably but also I think off the back of what she did in 2023 when she finished on the podium she had a tremendous final time trial in O she was excellent on on the tour and she didn’t really have a big focus on the tour of France Swift that year and it was all in support of of Damian Volering now she is fully focusing on it and the team have done full recons of every stage they’re all together i’ve seen her chain others and I think you’ve seen all the stages as well what I’m excited about with that team is they got Vanderbre and Lot and how good is she going to be as well exactly yeah yeah i think with those two for me is I know it it sounds awful but those two are proper bike riders in the sense that they’ve grown up on pedals they’ve spent their whole life on them and I think having two riders like that that really understand a bike race can be quite dangerous i know your legs have to do the talking but I think tactically those two together can be very destructive before even they get to the mountains and that be very hard for any other team to try and control so hard to call like I keep thinking I’m going to land on that name i’m going to land on that name and then I move on false is another name for Yeah yeah yeah i think we’ll have a better idea after the duro as well yeah yeah yeah absolutely cuz still it’s still Yeah it’s still a long way still a distance away yeah yeah long way and I don’t know when Capeki is returning back to competition but in the next month we Sophie D is going to be so hard to beat in a new team with the momentum behind her yeah and she’s that team is bolstered as well can I bring up something that has really angered me in the last week i mean I I’m getting so angry even thinking about it my heart’s pounding i’m so upset about it the new UCI rules over handlebar width now this is not something don’t laugh at me just I got so upset i did do you know what right i was on holiday in Morca with my family and I was telling my husband about it over lunch and he but he was so angry along with me great lunch time like I he’s quite a nice man anyway but I like to show him the world through female eyes and honestly he thought it was absolutely bonkers right he’s a scientist so he said “Well what’s where’s the data?” I’m like “What data?” Said “What what research is this decision based on for anyone who missed it it’s that all riders in the professional pelaton from 2026 have to ride a minimum of 40 cm width handlebars.” And as I was pointing out to my husband the average shoulder width for a woman is 33 cm and 40 is quite big i’ve recently done a bike fit i’m 38 and I’m not small for a professional female cyclist so even 40 would be too wide for me so he was like “Well where’s the research where’s the data like what what are they using to base this on?” The point around 40 cmters was safety in general but I’m presuming I can only presume that it’s based on the male palaton because it’s not to do with safety in the female palaton because because it’s not to do with safety at all well I think that I think bars are going too narrow yeah I think they’re scared of they were setting a limit yeah but the thing is where why they set why 40 one why is 40 and then one if that’s your rale for women or that’s right if it’s the 40 for for men then it should be adjusted for body types for women it should be 36 or something like that yeah yeah yeah we have it in time trial for example if you’re a short rider a short male there’s three different uh sizes isn’t there for a time trial bike if you’re below is it 180 you have a certain dispensation and then 180 to 189 is you can go you can go a little bit higher and then if you’re above 190 you have a dispensation again if you take this along a couple of steps okay and in a few years time you look at the mountain stage of a tour to France for example and and there isn’t the same competition between the very top riders or there isn’t the same aggression whatever it is and you look at that and you think you think oh that’s because women aren’t very good at cycling they’re not as good as men or that the the women’s sport isn’t as strong or as healthy we don’t have the same strength and depth what you’re not factoring in is the potential that actually young riders coming into the professional pelaton who are riding a badly fitted bike will get more injured they’ll have more pain it discriminates against in particular female climbers because they’re going to be the smallest of the professional pelaton in general so they’re going to be whittleled out of the sport or they’re going to be off with injury for longer and the net result is that the sport suffers but you’re never going to look back and go “Oh that’s handbar width.” You’re never going to make that connection a few years down the line but the damage has been done and it’s like you look at the societal prejudice against women when it comes to equipment anyway why do we not have so many female concert pianists because pianos are made for male hands the cockpit of uh an airplane is designed around male measurements not female measurements the world is is is designed literally for men we don’t have to keep making the same mistakes surely I don’t know why it’s 2025 and you can’t just have two separate Yeah two separate rulings as you said i think the UCI as they do for time trials how wide are your shoulders and that’s it just look how wide your shoulders are cuz you could have tiny little shoulders so you need a narrow handlebar done fine there you go everyone’s on the same wavelength the the the the rider from Little Trek Nath Fisher Black the New Zealander she posted on on social media the width of her shoulders with a tape measure saying “Look what was she she was 30 sure her shoulders are 30 or 32 i mean she was she’s tell she’s a fantastic climber yeah exactly she’s you know and she’s ran around like that we’re talking about the women there’s a lot of very petite male riders yeah yeah yeah the climber before Martinez lenny Martinez he certainly doesn’t ride 40 with buzz yeah maybe even Yonas Ringore for example dare I say that if enough of the men protest maybe they’ll listen just finally then on a scale of not to 10 how excited are we after the doof and after Swiss for the women about the two tourism this year not to 10 very very I don’t know [Music]