Tadej Pogačar Hasn’t Broken This Record! | GCN Show Ep. 654

Welcome to the GCN Show! This week, we’re asking a big question: Is there still one record that Tadej Pogačar can’t break? We dive deep into his incredible climbing performance on Hautacam at the Tour de France and compare it to the legendary, controversial record set by Bjarne Riis back in 1996.
We also discuss the difficult topic of doping in cycling, both past and present, and whether modern advancements in technology mean not all old records are breakable. Plus, we’ve got news on the best and worst states for commuting in America, a look at some super-fast (and expensive) new inner tubes, and promising news from the bike industry.
And as always, we have your best hacks and bodges, comments, and the caption competition!

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⏱️ Chapters
00:00 Welcome to the GCN Show!
00:40 This Week in Cycling: Sockless Sprints & Rugby Tackles
01:57 LEAD STORY: The One Record Pogačar Couldn’t Break
02:43 Pogačar vs. Riis: A Head-to-Head on Hautacam
03:41 The Story of “Mr. 60%” and His Special Bike
05:13 Indurain’s Incredible Power
06:21 The Elephant in the Room: Doping, Then and Now
09:08 Why Not All Records Are Being Broken (And Why That’s a Good Thing)
10:59 CYCLING SHORTS (News Roundup)
11:08 In Memoriam: Samuele Privitera
12:13 The Best & Worst US States for Commuting
14:24 News from the Bike Industry
15:34 New Tech: POC Helmets & Pirelli’s Super-Fast Inner Tubes
17:43 NEW GCN MERCH
18:45 HACK/BODGE Of The Week
25:29 Caption Competition
27:45 Comments Of The Week

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Good day from Sydney, Australia. Welcome to the GCN show. Welcome to the GCN show. Coming up this week, the one record that Tad Pagatcha couldn’t break. We will be looking in detail at his time of the classic tour to France climb, Autocam, which still fell short of the record. It was set 29 years ago. We’ve also got the best and worst states for commuting by bike in America, promising bike industry news, and the super expensive inner tubes that actually make sense. [Music] [Applause] [Music] This week in the world of cycling, we learned that the UCI had no worries about Primos Rogich’s sock height on stage 12 of the tour to France last week. But we do. Yes. Now, at first glance, there were no socks at all. Closer analysis revealed short so-called trainer socks. Roglitch claimed he was simply trying to even up his tan lines on that first mountain stage of the race. Really showed off his slender ankles though, S. I think you’ll agree. Well, trainer socks make all ankles look slender. Yeah, I should say. Um, did you know actually that trainer socks mark you out as being a certain age, as do skinny jeans? I did not know that. No. Yeah, apparently so. Marks you out as old as amongst Gen Zers. Have you you got Yeah, I’ve got long socks on. You got skinny jeans on. Yeah. Where did you read about this? Uh in the newspaper. What? Well, that’s probably something else that marks you out as old Sai, I would imagine. Read a newspaper. All right, fair. Uh, now we also learned this week, thanks to GCN commenter Jonathan Zapala, that our video on the weirdest jobs at the Tour to France is outdated because we left out one that’s just cropped up this year, the finish line protester rugby tackler. Yeah, a job only open to ex rugby players by the looks of what happened that day. Now, finally this week, we learned that there is still one record that Paga hasn’t broken, which as we pointed out in the intro is the climbing record of Otic. Uh he may have put over two minutes into Yonas Vugore who was the best of the rest that day but he didn’t scale the climb as fast as Banna Reese did back in 1996. Yeah. We should probably say there are plenty of other records he hasn’t broken yet but that’s kind of like the most relevant one we’re focusing on today. Exactly. Yeah. Now amongst those who keep a close eye on these times is Amati Purali on X. Uh that’s a Finnish thing, isn’t it? Amati Puri. Yeah. It means pro cycling in Finnish. I think does. Yeah. I’m pretty good at finish these days. Um, not finishing but the L. Anyway, he posted his list of times on that mountain over the years, didn’t he? He did. So, Pagatcha fell 28 seconds short of that record time, but he did slot in just in front of Luke Leblanc and Miguel Inrain, who’d set some blistering times back in 1994. Yeah. Now it is always a little dangerous to come to any concrete conclusions by directly comparing climbing times, wind, like what else happened on the stage, all sorts of things. But at the same time is also bloom and interesting, isn’t it? So last week, Pagata’s team set to work as soon as they hit the start of the climb and he launched his attack with 11ks to go and then from that point it was basically a time tri for him to the finish. His aim really to put as much time as he could into his arch rival Vingore. Yeah. And that is reflected in the data, isn’t it? So around 4ks into the climb, Pagata was actually 25 seconds faster than Ree, 6.3K into it. He was still 19 seconds ahead, but he covered the final 7 km almost a minute slower than Ree. And interestingly, Ree made his racewinning attack in 96 with around 60 sixks to go on the climbs, should I say. Uh, for those of you who are new to the sport and haven’t read up on those years, Ree had been known as Mr. 60%, hadn’t he? which is a nickname he got given because it was rumored he was riding with a hematocrit of about 60% because of his abuse of the red blood cell booster EPO which he I mean he later admitted to doping didn’t he? He did. Yeah. I’m not sure he’s ever admitted to having him of 60%. No I don’t Those are the rumors. Yeah. Now Reese despite being a tall chap actually weighed around 70 kilos. Um which is still about what five or six more than Pagatcha I think. Um, and he certainly would have been on a bike that weighed about a kilo more than Paga’s carbon colon. Um, although can I tell you a good bike story about B Ree. Okay. So, he said in his autobiography that longtime viewers will remember I picked up in a secondhand bookshop cuz there’s no way I’ll buy it at my house actually. I haven’t read it. I borrowed it about four years ago. Yeah, that’s what we like to hear about exopies. Anyway, um he said he had a special climbing bike for that day which he swapped onto, I think from memory at the bottom of the climb. What was special about that bike? He’d had a smaller big chain ring fitted specifically so he could attack his rivals whilst he was in the big chain ring. The idea being to deal such a massive psychological blow to them that they just let him ride off into the distance. Do you think it was that or do you think they let him ride off because he was going at such a high speed they couldn’t keep up? Like a warp speed? I mean there is that there is that isn’t there? Yeah. What I find interesting are those times from the two years previous I mentioned in 94 particularly of Miguel Indra because he was only 14 seconds slower than Paga even though he weighed about 80 kg. Can you imagine how much power he was putting through the pedals? I mean I don’t think Dan but what it must have been well upwards of 500 W which is just absolutely ridiculous. Um we also don’t have Pagatch’s data from the autocamps that he’s doing power data. No no but going back to Matti Purali on X. Uh the data marries up quite closely with other online estimates as well isn’t it? Pagatcha maintained about 7 watts per kilo for much of the lower slopes. But then that did you’ll be relieved to hear come down to just 6 watts per kilo for the last 4 and a half. Well he definitely slowed down didn’t he on that. Yeah. Six watts per kilo. He was creeping. Yeah creeping. Yeah, because Leapovitz rode the last part of the climb at a similar speed to Pagatcha. Tobias Johannison lost less than 30 seconds in that time as well. It was just that Vingugle cracked and lost quite a lot of time there. So, it looked like Pagata was speeding up almost. Yeah. Now, another record that Pagata is yet to beat, one of the many that we haven’t talked about yet. Um, Monvon 2. Uh now that may have changed by the time this show goes out but as we record it the time to be on that climb the legendary climb is actually Ibanos who set uh the record in a mountain time trial at the criterium to do back in 2004. So he rode up the bold mountain in 55 minutes and 51 seconds on route to overall victory in front of Lance Armstrong back in 2004. For context the straa record is with Pagatcha. He’s got that one at least, but he was 3 and a half minutes slower than Mayo, but that came after a road stage rather than that Dolphin individual time trial. Andrew Feather came just short of Pagatcha’s time up Mon 2 in a team time trial in a team time trial when he started at the bottom completely fresh. But anyway, um incidentally, we should say are about to release a video in which I may revisit that climb along with former teammate Haimar Zubelia. We’ve not seen the video yet. I can imagine it’s gonna be an absolute cracker. Certainly going to be interesting to see what he has to say about that day. Yes. And by that we mean whether or not he talks about the doping side of things. I think that’s what you were saying. Mo tested positive for EPO in 2007 for which he served a 2-year ban. So that brings us on to the elephant in the room, doping. There are consistent and very persistent insinuations that the best riders now are still doping. Two years ago, those accusations were pointed at Jonas Vugle, whose dominant performance in the hilly individual time trial. And the race as a whole, I guess, raised some eyebrows. It was a bonkers time trial. It was. And now they’re pointed at Pigatcha, who isn’t just dominating the tour to France, but seemingly pretty much every race he starts. Yeah. Now, the suspicion is completely understandable. And actually, we’ve got to say, also healthy, right? So, the innocent until proven guilty line came about to haunt cycling fans who, well, I think we all believed in the performances that we were seeing in the 90s and the early 2000s. Since then, many fans have been quite rightly skeptical when witnessing performances that are perceived as too good to be true. Yeah. And as you said, that is quite a healthy position to take because the last thing that we want is to stop questioning performances and find ourselves back in the dark days. The question then becomes though, what performance is too good to be true? Yeah. And that’s an impossible question to answer, isn’t it really? We can compare climbing times all we like and jump to whatever conclusions we want to, but currently there is no proof that the current best rides aren’t doping, nor is there proof that they aren’t precisely. You can’t prove a negative. You cannot prove a negative in this case. Now, what we can say is that everything performance-based is better now than it was 20 or 30 years ago. There are going to be people that mock that. The comment section is probably going to go absolutely wild, but it is true. Bikes, clothing, helmets, gears, tires, nutrition, training, heat training, cooling, disc brakes, everything. I mean, I will argue with anyone who claims that those advances are not allowing riders to go much faster. No, I would completely agree. Now, it doesn’t prove or disprove anything, but it is undeniable that all those things have advanced significantly, haven’t they? So, the fact that despite these improvements, not all climbing records are being broken, it’s got to be a good thing, right? It is. It’s got to be. Yeah. If nothing else, it means that we’ve got something to chat about next year. Well, if the USA really are banning narrow handlebars to slow riders down, that means there’s no chance that Pagata or anyone else is going to be breaking records ever again, isn’t it? Absolutely. Yeah. Not a chance. In fact, you’ll be able to ride faster than them. Well, I already did. Well, I didn’t actually. No, you didn’t. That was the whole point. an amateur and I got beaten by 34 pros. How wide are handlebars actually? Quite narrow. Yeah, narrow. Yeah, on that on that bike I’ve got narrow handlebars and I’ve got the hoods inwards. Oh, really? Yeah. You’re you’re like Gen Zer then. Yeah. Yeah. I even took off my skinny jeans for that bike. Ah, going to have to flank it automatically next year when they realize your handlebars were only 38 cm wide. Right. We’d be super interested to hear your thoughts on this. Um, also, do you know what? It’d be super cool. Like what is the one climbing record that you would like to see broken? I think vonu would be up there. I think uh outdo got the record on outdo still isn’t it? Still got it. I think he still got it. Yeah, that would be cool. Did that come in a time tri as well? I don’t think No, it came at the end of like a 450 km. No, I’m joking. I’m joking. Yeah. Yeah. Let us know your thoughts on the topic in the comments section down below. We’ll go off and put our tin hats on and read them at a later date. And now it’s time for cycling shorts. Cycling shorts now. And we are unfortunately going to start with the tragic news that young Italian cyclist Samuel Privetera passed away following a crash at the Jirro Calistico de la Val deosta MLO. Uh that race has long been a proving ground for talented youngsters looking to make the jump up to the world tour and Preatera was a prime example of that. Yeah. So investigations are ongoing but media are reporting that initial reports suggest that he hit a bump while descending lost control and it was a head injury that was the critical injury. Samueli Privetera who passed away sadly at the age of 19. It’s hard to move on from a story of a young rider dying doing what they love, isn’t it? There is of course a lot of discussion at the moment about how to try and make racing safer, but we’ll leave that for another time. We’ll leave it for another time, but we will make sure that we do something really big about safety and cycling because we can’t just stand and watch riders dying at this point, can we? No, not that we can do anything about it, but hopefully we can start making people think and make changes. Yeah. Anyway, we will try to move on. There’s been a lot of talk about how to make cycling commuting safer. Now the list was published recently of the best and worst states over in the USA for cycling to work. Yeah. So this is a list that was compiled by the Velure Insurance Company. A lot of it was from data taken from the League of American Bicyclists. Now in it they take into consideration how many people ride to work and what proportion of the total number of commuters that actually makes up plus laws, investment into infrastructure, safety records, etc. We should go through the podium places really, shouldn’t we? So, in third, Minnesota, home of Park Tools, isn’t it? In second, Oregon. And in first, Vermont. Vermont. Congratulations. Meanwhile, the worst Long-Term Rouge naming and shaming. Not that I think that Texas really cares, but uh Texas and South Carolina. So in Texas, a reported 26,000 people commute by bike compared to a total pool of 15 million and we’re only $2 in spent is spent on cycling uh and walking per person. Yeah. Now for context, this is compared to $10 spent per person in Alaska, which is the best funded US state for active travel. Yeah. But then for reference, uh, in the Netherlands, you get 35 euros, but that’s pretty much the same as dollars per person. Yeah. Now, I can hear you asking at home, how much is spent on highways? Well, in the US, it’s about $800 per capita per year. Well, we just need let that sink in for a moment. So, $800 per capita per year spent on highways and what was it? $2 spent on active travel in Texas. That’s about the gist of it. It is. Yeah, isn’t it? Okay. Uh right. Well, things have just got a little bit better in Utah at least with the implementation of a new law which prohibits drivers from parking or driving in bike lanes. About time, too. Yeah, exactly. Not that a law does much unless it’s enforced, of course, but still. Well, at least they’re trying in a way. Yeah. Take my hat off to them. Right. A little bit of good news. Tin hat. You sure? Well, I’ll put it back on. Back on. A little bit of good news now from the bike industry. Yeah. Although should say too late for mountain bike brand YT who are the latest to go into voluntary administration, aren’t they? Yes, that is true. But road and gravel is looking quite good. And crucially, the Confederation of European bicycle industry are reporting that 2025 is the year that the bike market is now stable and demand is returning to prepandemic levels. There you go. Now, according to Kbby, who? Kenbei, the Confederation of whatever it was. You don’t even know, dear. KBI. Yeah, Kenbby. Um, interestingly, they say that there has been a higher reliance on domestically produced units and existing inventory rather than fresh imports or exports, which might explain why some manufacturers in Asia like Johnny Shimano have uh had reduced sales this year. Might explain it. Yeah, it does all work itself out in the end, Jerry, doesn’t it? Well, I mean, I’m sure it will. Yeah, I’m sure it will. Right. Some tech news for you now. After a frenetic period of new bikes, of which many, many, many, many, many were released, seemingly, we can report this week that there are seemingly no new bikes. Wow. Yeah. Uh, however, you might have seen a new helmet on top of Ben Heady’s head in the tour to France. Well, that is the new Pock Cital Light, which aims to take the class leading safety of the Cital, but reduce the weight and dial up the ventilation. Yes. Now, visually, it’s a subtle difference to the existing Saitel, but the weight drops to just 200 g, which uh by some estimates is the lightest ever pock helmet. Is it? Yeah. Uh and another blink and you’ll miss it piece of new tech. Pirelli have just launched new inner tubes. They’re called the Smart Tube PRS. I think you could blink as many times as you want. You got no chance of spotting those, have you? Cuz they’re in tubes. Exactly. Yeah. Uh one’s mounted. Well, yes. No. out of a tire. They’re vibrant yellow, aren’t they? You can’t miss them. No, you really can’t. Um anyway, these are the ones that got Ollie Bridwood so excited because they promise the per a performance level. Sorry. Almost on a par with tubeless. Like almost almost. Um but then of course with the convenience of an inner tube if that’s your bag. Yeah. What’s the downside? Well, you can probably guess the downside is cost. These are premium inner shoes, but in terms of performance gain per unit of money, they actually work out more favorably than many other marginal gains. Yeah, I think the retail price was about €30, wasn’t it? Per tube. Are they any more puncture proof than standard tube? Uh, well, I think from memory, I’ll have to check actually, but from memory, these are actually, despite being lighter than the existing smart tubes, they’re slightly thicker. So, you would imagine that gives better puncture resistance. And from experience, they seem pretty good. It’s not like, you know, riding around on some like Yeah. Well, don’t know like a track tubular from back in the day. So So yeah. No, I think they’re fine. Um but uh yeah, it is more expensive than a bootar tube, but then it’s going to save you about what 4 watts per wheel. It’s a lot, isn’t it? Really? It’s a lot. Yeah. You’ll you’ll feel the difference. And like you said, compared to other upgrades, they sound expensive compared to normal shoes, but it’s not in the great scheme of things. A huge amount. No, it’s really not. No. Right. We’re going to finish cycling shorts with a blatant um what should I say? Advertisement promo about GCN shop plug. I think you can say, right, plug. Yeah. Plug in. Not only do we have a huge range of t-shirts available for sale over at global cycle, sorry, shop.globalsenetwork.com global cyclingetwork.com uh throughout July and beyond. We’ve also got a brand new limited edition camelback bead on which Sai is parading now. Not parading, modeling. Yeah. And then beyond all of that, you might have noticed in the background of shot throughout today’s GC show, we’ve got a new addition jersey. I’ll hold it up very close to the camera now. I’m a big fan of that. That’s very cool, isn’t it? Yeah. It’s also got very nice ventilated bits on the uh on the sides there. Yeah. That’ll keep me cool. As ever, we will remind you that I can’t hang it up bigger than now. I’ll put it here. All purchases made through shop.globalsetwork.com help massively when it comes to us producing our freeto view content. So, thanks for all the purchases so far. And if you’d like any of those items, head over to the shop or click on the QR code that’s on the screen now. Next up, it’s time for hack/bodgege of the week, the part of the show, or one of them that you can get involved in. Uh all you need to do is go to globalcycling cyclingetwork.com/uploader uh where you can upload your pictures of hacks bodges of yourself or those that you’ve seen out and about. Uh the first one this week comes in from Anders Nordstrom. In my son’s first flat, no drilling was allowed in the concrete walls and no bike storage room available. So I built this thing hanging from only two bolts available. No drilled holes and both bikes are stored safely inside. That is cool, isn’t it? Now, first of all, can I just say when you when I read concrete walls, I was like, surely not. But no, that is actually concrete. I could see why you wouldn’t want to drill holes in it cuz there ain’t no plastering over those. But that looks incredible. Yeah, I love the built-in lights. It was lucky there were two bolts already in there, wasn’t it? Really very lucky. Yeah, that’s what a wicked little uh storage system. Oh, that’s a massive hack, right? You even got the lights integrated into the top of it. Do we need to do any more um describing for podcast listeners? Uh it’s concrete wall with um some some well put together planks of wood. Well, I mean it’s quite a simple design, isn’t it really? We’ve got uh three vertically mounted bits of wood attached to three horizontal braces. Uh but the PS resistance, as we alluded to, is the uh built-in spotlights at the top that illuminate these two bikes. It looks brand new that that Trek mountain bike up top, doesn’t it? But it does, but it’s clearly not. Dan, how’s it got a dirty chain? Well, no. It’s got uh what’s the Oh, no. Maybe what’s that thing? Oh, it’s a lock around the back. Sorry. Uh anyway, I suppose the question is how you get it down, but I’m sure they are, doesn’t it? Yeah, maybe. They’re very tall. Yeah, but they are probably Well, it’s a hack from me. Yeah, a hack from me, too. Right. Timothy Dvos sent in this one. Uh, indoor 3D printed phone holder. Okay. says, “I was looking for a way to use the Swift companion app without the need to put a table or something else to put it on a table presuming. I made a phone holder that fits onto the Garmin mount and has an angle for readability.” Well, that’s pretty cool, isn’t it? Yeah. So, we talking that’s like a three a quarter turn mount with a um phone cradle. That is angled on top. That is actually a product ready to be made, isn’t it? Yeah, I could see that. I That would be really good, wouldn’t it? Yeah. Amazing. Second hack of the day for me. Yeah. And that’s like that’s a really like Well, I like the first one. That’s like a next level hack. Got on a roll. What’s next? No pressure. What is next? Um sent in by Yes, please do. Notify me. Trying to find the name. And under the name, as I just pointed out, it says yes, please do credit and notify me. Whoever you are. Um anyway, while out riding with Ditenvella, club mate had her cleat fall off as it wasn’t on tight enough. By the time she realized this was the case, she’d already completely lost one of the bolts and a rectangular washer. At the coffee shop in Newate, Surrey, we tried to reattach the cleat and did a couple of things. Repurposed a pa bolt to hold the cleat on and made a new washer from an aluminium water bottle lid using some mine mini pliers, should I say. This is only made possible for the fact that I had some mini pliers on me. Is this something we talked about a couple of weeks ago? Somebody went out with pliers. Seems Oh, yeah. That that does sound like something. And I was able to completely flatten the bottle cap into the required shape and pierce a hole for it for the bolt to go through. We won the day and she was able to ride home with the cleat securely attached. Uh Pierce, I do carry quite a lot of kit tools with me when I ride and I’m often teased about this except on the days where people can get home without a taxi as a result. Well, I mean that is cool, but I’m pretty sure you could limp home with two out of three bolts on your cleat. So, you know, I appreciate uh that yes, please do credit and notify me that you’re pretty chuffed at carrying around a massive toolbox, but um I think on this instance, I’m calling uh calling like that’s kind of a bodgege in it really. There you go. Bodgege. Well, like I say, it’s just, you know, do you need it? I don’t think you do. I don’t know who Yes, please do credit and notify me is, but I think they’re going to be quite upset at you calling that bodgege. Yeah, it might be Ben Nicholson. Okay. Yeah, I’ve just read. All right. Oh, thank you. But I maybe um also what’s the sort of bottle cap slash um contact lens holder just behind the cleat? Do what? This thing. What is that’s for That’s where you Okay. Yeah. Yeah, I got it now. Bit late to the party. Yeah. Yeah. All right. Well, besides going bodgege, I’m going hack. I really don’t want to upset Ben. But we uh we’ve credited you. Um no idea how we notify him. No, this is all the notification you’re going to get. GCN show. Let us know your number, Ben. I’ll give you a call tonight. Uh coming in from Mosatinma. Riding on some champagne gravel around Norway’s third largest lake, Ferundon. I need an obligatory picture of the bike and the amazing scenery, but no shadow stand. Right next to where I stopped in the roadside ditch was a bleached jawbone from an elk. Wa! Perfect shadow stand length nature provides. There you go. That is cool actually. Yeah, you should have taken that with you. That’s like Well, I wouldn’t want to put that in my back pocket. That’s quite creepy. Is it? Yeah. Don’t you think? All the teeth. [Laughter] I just like I wouldn’t have second thoughts about that. Is it not art? No. Okay. I mean, it’s a it’s a piece of art as far as I’m concerned. Um, can I just ask a question? When did we start describing gravel as champagne? Champagne gravel. Well, I was expecting it to be somewhere near the rest of it. So, it’s like a thing, isn’t it? Like smooth gravel’s been described as champagne gravel. I’ve never heard of it before. Yeah. No, I just I wonder where that has come from. What’s rough gravel? Stella. [Laughter] [Music] Yeah. I was just being over going over some tenants extra strong gravel. Four punches. Yeah. Yeah. You fool today, mate. That was good. Right. What were we saying? That’s a hack. I think that I’m going to say that was a hack as well. Yeah, I like that. I think Ben’s even going to be even more upset. You called that a hack and he’s a boss. Sorry, Ben. I’m just going to say, as I say, I like I just don’t like carrying loads and loads of stuff with you for the one time in 8 years that you might need it. Yeah. when you can find something like that and probably help fix it anyway. Exactly. Yeah. Right. Please get involved ready for next week’s show. We do love this part. Hacks and bodies. It’s time now for captioning competition. That part of the show where you get a chance to get your hands on a coveted GCN Camelback water bottle. All you got to do is put a witty caption in the comment section below. It relates to a photo we’ll give you in just one second after the results from last week. Uh last week’s photo was this one of LeLrex Matias Galmosa with a breathe right nose strip over his nose obviously with the French flag saying Lato Juier Bastile Day on it. Our winner this week is Raymond Olgardo Zero who put caption Oastil day. I thought it was nostrial day. Love it. Brilliant. Genuinely I thought that made me chuckle. Yeah, it’s very good. Very Thank you very much. Get in touch with us on Facebook with your address and we will get that bottle sent out to you. There was some actually a lot of genuinely very good comments captions last week. Were there far far better than your scale Mo’s nose ones, but um Oh yeah, I quite like that one. It was all right. The delivery wasn’t great. I could have done better. Not as not as good as this one. Anyway, right on then Dan. See if you can up your game. Well, I think um viewers may have already seen this photo earlier on in the show. uh depending on what the editor put in Isaac but it is uh pretty much rugg glitch sockless well not sockless but without any socks on display on stage 12 of this year’s tour to France I’ll get you started to front organizers face difficult questions as triathlete infiltrates race you’ve redeemed yourself excellent uh can’t not laugh at a triathlon joke it does completely change how somebody looks on a bike doesn’t it not wearing sock yeah it’s super weird but he like I mean he’s been a little bit off all race hasn’t But he does look a little bit, doesn’t he? Like he did the hairy legs thing at a point as well, didn’t he? Yeah. I mean, why not, right? Like he sort of doesn’t like courting attention, but then at the same time, he sort of does. Yes. Any ideas what’s going on with Primlets this week? No, he doesn’t care though is what you say. He doesn’t care. No. Right. If you think you can come up with a witty caption and my goodness me, this is possibly one of the easiest photos ever. Get involved in the comment section down below. Right, going to read out a few of our favorite comments from last week’s video before we let you know what’s coming up on the channel. And we’ll start as ever with the fuse from underneath the GCN show. Uh, King Cringle 16 put the saddle position is in fact one of the most crucial aspects for best performance. Today’s saddle, for example, is positioned right beneath a world champion. When I first read this, I was like, “Oh my goodness, this is like uber mansplaining.” And then when I saw the second sentence, it probably made me laugh out loud. So yes, thank you Kring King Kringle for that one. Um, Muela Plan, is that Michael? Yeah. No, no, Michael Kaplan. Michael Kaplan. Criy. Michael Kaplan. My wife is already irritated at the time I spend watching every minute of the tour. I would be served with divorce papers before a 400k stage was completed. Yeah. I mean, you’d have to watch it in a different way, wouldn’t you? You would do. Yeah. As in on radio. Yes. Well, and the fact is I think you’d be racing a different way, wouldn’t it? Well, it would be. So, not much would happen for quite a lot of it. You know, tune in at certain moments, would you? For context, last week’s show was whether the tour to France is not now the ultimate test of human endurance versus those massive stages they used to do. Uh, venturous Ben, but very fair. This is the person who uh who did a video reply on hack and bod with his own plug. Very fair plug, I would say. And I am indeed watching this week. Thanks, guys. There you go. Uh and also I did say I wonder whether that’s actually a proper product and it turns out uh my ignorance of saddle bag stabilizers is quite significant and not only is it a proper product many people make them including Topi who are one of our longtime partners. So uh but you know what I am getting one of those before my next bike packing trip. I get rid of the sway. Yeah I want to slay not sway then you’ve been swayed. Yep. It’s true. Right. Uh, oh, and also another correction. Uh, I think quite a few of these. Yeah, I think I said that California was the first US state to get speed cameras, and it turns out that is categorically not correct. Did you read that in a newspaper? Uh, no. I read it underneath about 49 comments under the last Oh, in did I get my facts from a newspaper? No, I think I got it from a shony website actually. So, yeah. Anyway, there we go. So, yeah, I stand corrected. Uh, thank you Stark Parker 16 for being one of many. Meanwhile, under size epic Finnish ride, US get wrote in say blueberry soap soup. Sorry, blueberry soup. I don’t know what it is, but it’s got blueberries in and it’s kind of soupy. This is absolutely top drawer punditry. I mean, you got to say what you see sometimes, haven’t you? And I taste I didn’t have time to go and investigate what blueberry soup was, so um I simply described it as best I could. Neil M. Don’s also got something in common with you, Sai, because he wrote in to say, “I’ve also thrown up in Finland. Alcohol was involved.” Yeah, I chuckled at that one. Um, and then David Rice, I didn’t know about this. Right. So, CESU being this Finnish concept of uh basically just like cracking on against all expectations, that kind of vibe. Um, so David learned about CESU three years ago when he raced on Zift to qualify to join the Zift CESU racing club and wear the CESU racing jersey. Uh, so there you go. I’m frequently given a ride on by fellow CESU club members, which sums up what CESU is all about. Technically, I don’t think it does, but it’s another Finnish character trait, which is not leaving anyone behind. So once again, thank you to my IBD teammates who waited as soon as they realized you could really just wait just had a bit of a break without you. They thought I was going to quit. So they were disappointed, were they? Oh god, here he is again. Yeah, pretty much. Oh, he’s carrying on. Meanwhile, under the British Pedal Car Grand Prix video from Sunday. Uh, sorry Velop, but why didn’t you show the whole podium? It would be good to see what level of athleticism is required to beat you. This is a very good point and I should have done a much better job at um showing who came second and who came first. Although during the race I had no idea who was anywhere to be honest. Such a short lap. You pass and get past so many times. I think in answer to your question, sorry Vevel. Um the reason why we didn’t show the whole podium is because Dan didn’t want you to see the level of athleticism that was required to beat him and his teammates. Well, if you go into the video, there was one guy that I don’t want to do a disservice, but I reckon he was close to 70. Okay. I caught him up and I and I thought it’s going to be so hard to get around. I’m I’m actually just going to sit here for a while. I think it took me pretty much a lap to um slipstream long enough to save enough energy up to get past him. I think they came fourth breeding down next. I also had a chuckle at Randy Gravel’s comment um which is lift some weight, dude. I chuckled. Dan’s been lifting weights for 18 months now. So, uh, that’s just a bit hard. As I pointed out before, all of this bike riding is like cannibalizing a muscle. Just need to stop cycling again. Underneath Connor’s video about weird jobs at the tour to France. Uh, Cclan for Wild Five. You forgot the person who applies glue to the bottles to make them extra sticky. Very good. Yeah. And then, uh, there were actually two, uh, two comments from, uh, doping chaperones, like the testers. Uh, Logan Clifford, I like this one. I was the doping chaper owner for a SEP cuss after he won the tour of Utah years ago. It was pretty weird experience. After the Wii, we just hung out for like an hour waiting for his media time. The rules were we had to be together the entire time. So, we just chatted. Kind of crazy. And then Gregory Peter said, “I’m a doping control officer and I can say that it can be uncomfortable for both people, but everyone is professional at that level of the sport and the overwhelming majority of athletes are supportive of clean sport and understand that the rules don’t end when they cross the finish line.” Yeah. I mean, it is super weird. It is really weird. But actually also, as you say, you’re just doing your job, right? So, you kind of have to get over it. I think I’ve told you the story. I can’t remember if I said it on the G S or elsewhere before, but uh when my oldest son, who’s now 22, was young, we were about to leave to take him to school, Lorraine had already gone to work. And then the anti-doping officer came to the door and of course at that point, because I’m in, I had to wait there until I needed the L again, which is quite some time. So Ralph went in and I think this is a totally fresh story. Is it really? I literally This is This is like a It took me a while. So Ralph therefore went into school about an hour late. And then at the end of the day, the teacher asked if they could see me. Anyway, the reason they said, “Why are you late?” Even though I told the reception when I went in and Ralph said, “Uh, we were about to leave and then a man came to the door and he had to watch daddy go to the toilet.” Ralph was five at the time, so they wanted to check what was going on. That was absolutely amazing. I think they question I can’t remember exactly but I think yeah they both went into the toilet together and and he had to watch dad anyway uh on the channel this week uh today Tuesday if you’re watching this as the video comes out we’ve also got on G10 Racing our big tour to France fam abift preview show that race starts this coming Saturday and we should also remind you you can watch a full season of bike racing live on Discovery Plus and Max including uh that tour to France for women as well so stay tuned from Saturday. That’s right. Uh on Thursday, uh Dan, you’ve been doing some investigation, haven’t you, about how much protein Tour to France riders consume. I have. Yeah. I mean, so much talk within cycling is obviously about number of carbs per hour during the race and carbs in general before and after as well. Outside of cycling, so much talk about protein intake in terms of longevity and specifically bodybuilding, of course. So, I thought it’d be interesting to find out how specific they are with the amount and with the type and with the timing and everything else. I’ve spoken to a few experts on that. So hopefully you’ll find it interesting. I will for certain. Um on Saturday we’ve got another epic ride. Um this one is considerably more epic than the two recent epics which were mine and yours. The paddle cargo predics. Uh so including your Manchester to London. So Bridgewood has been at it again. He wanted to see how many tour to France climbs he could ride up in 24 hours. Uh and that is on a top secret new bike as well. So, uh, that’s super exciting video, that one. That’s on Thursday. And on Sunday, uh, Mountain Biker versus Roadie. Yeah. So, GMBBN got some new presenters, haven’t they? So, uh, fresh blood, basically. And we’ve got some old presenters. Very old. Yes. Not old, but already experienced. Yep. Uh, so, Alex has been showing Ferg the ropes. I don’t think he’d ever ridden a road bike before. And then at the end of the day, had to do a crit, a criterium race. So, uh, anyway, stay tuned for that one. Indeed. Right. Yeah. Ceremonial. Shutting the lid means we’re at the end of the show. Thanks for watching. See you next week.