Remco Evenepoel is Back, Carapaz ALMOST Wins Tour Colombia and Doping Back in Cycling? | Episode #55

In a week full of racing with the Tour de La Provence, Tour Colombia and several one day races as well as the Women’s UAE Tour and sadly doping cases have surfaced in the sport once more.
Remco Evenepoel got his first win of the year, Mads Pedersen dominates the Tour de La Provence and Tom Pidcock took a famous KOM in Spain

Collaboration between @thecyclingdane and @OwDoCycling

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00:00 Intro
00:22 Lake District to Sponsor the Podcast?
01:54 Tour de La Provence 2024
04:20 Sam Bennett still a top sprinter?
07:11 Mads Pedersen Too Strong in 2024?
10:50 Remco Evenepoel back to Winning in Portugal
17:25 Tom Pidcock Steals Juan Ayuso’s KOM
23:51 UAE Tour 2024
28:58 Tour Colombia 2024
37:45 Doping still presence in the peloton?
40:27 Rider of the Week

Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of the echelon cycling podcast where three cycling nerds discuss what’s been happening in the week of cycling and also look with an eye to the events ahead because speculation is fun as always I’m joined by Mr critical himself Yan Wilson with with an amazing t-shirt

And Patrick Blake of AO cycling somewhere in the Lake District as well so I mean guys how’s the week been and I mean a lot of racing to get through once again so we have got a packed agenda to say the least the had none of us live in

The Lake District this podcast has had a number of Lake District in the past year I think I’ve recorded two episodes there Patrick’s being there well Patrick is there now so it’s like we’ve uh We’ve definitely done a lot for their tourism industry so um if the mayor of the Lake

District I know there isn’t one but if there is a mayor or a tourism board and they want to offer um us us a promotional deal pay for a studio to be in the Lake District yeah yeah I that would pretty cool I was actually I had a

Bit of nostalgia today because I went win L of pass and you remember when the for Britain actually made good routs and Cent a team time trial up there and then it just made me sad because I thought wow it’s so rubbish now but anyway that is enough that’s already me losing track

30 seconds in and the tour Britain getting bashed already already classic I mean this this week it’s just been so busy there’s been like if you’re somebody who’s following racing there been like six results popping up a day there’s been Rance which P’s been doing sick oh man started there’s been one day

Races I mean I don’t know where do we begin with it all I probably even forgetting one or two things in there even but should we go with provol I guess to start with MES person would dominating I mean we would spoke about him last week doing well at De he’s

Actually also chasing the well chasing Ralph Samson I don’t know if you guys know who he is kind of Denmark’s mes PS of the 90s in a way so he’s chasing his all-time winning record which is about 56 wins he’s getting closer but still a

Few wins to go yeah I mean you you love France what happened okay so um to I race I hold very dearly in my hearts uh on day one it was a little time Trav on Mal which is won by m pacing of Le track interestingly second place went to a

Swedish Rider y sist who I’d not heard of before he’s SN to second place he’s just signed with little track from sort of obscurity he’s 20 years old so good result for him the next day stage one um Was Won by m Pon again with Alex zangler

Or zingler in second place and Riley pck roll in third he had a bit of a breakout towards the end of last year he won a stage of to the total avenir last year so he’s making waves for Israel Premier Tech it was good week for them but on

Stage two at Manos It Was Won by mass pacing again with the hilly set a stage there with zingler finishing in second place again zingler who’s promised a lot of good results usually in these smaller French races the next stage the final one from Al to sorry from to a a city I

Absolutely love if you’re going to France go to AA it’s like sorry more tourism talk U but it’s like the artisty city in in the south of France and um a lot of people move out of Paris to go to Al in the summer and it’s got like this

Really cool festival called the photography it’s fantastic you have to visit it’s also got a wonderful ran Amphitheater they do bull fighting there Vincent vanov used to paint a lot of his pictures there anyways Tom van asber won there ahead of Sam Bennett in second place and Alex zingler once again in

Third this Me overall Mass p and took the win 29 seconds of Alex zingler and ra Garcia who rides for AR B hotels fourth place went to Daman Tu which has a awful surname in French um his name is weird um tangent his surname is also

Very similar to the French word for an orgy um so whenever I see his name like I just think like Damen orgy besides the point uh fifth place was Alex Kish of little treack again so good week for little treack three writers in the top 10 with yakob cic fist in eighth place

As well and guys I know we spoke about it but I completely forgot the S Bennett moov to to the Caton Azar but um he had a couple decent top T this week as well he was a bit of a surprise this week well yeah it was a surprise it’s just been

Torrential we throughout that whole race to the point where stage one which is really stage two because there’s prologue but you know I love all that stuff when there a prologue the time gaps were like GC times was taken at 5K to go because it was so torrential and

It was a technical running so all the time gaps taken at 5K to go I don’t know benett I kind of thought you know he got beat by Tom B like I mean come on it’s I say it’s like it’s not the end of Ben like it’s still getting used to a

Team and a team which isn’t especially known for sprinting so I’m not really taking too much from it but do you expect to see jenet at the tour this year or do you think that like he’s just G to be relegated to doing just like stage races he should get ground yeah he

Should star for sure like at that team it’s it’s kind of hard to see who else would really be up there and like a grand tour start list apart from it Ben o Conor but we believe he might be going to the J Ben o Conor by the way who took

A win this week we’re probably not going to talk about that one so let’s just give him a little bit of Praise because it’s a pretty small race but um yeah he should be there but I just don’t you know this is the C ASA they’ve never

Really sort of had a Sprint train so like I’m not expecting them to send like a full Sprint train to a gr tour to support him I don’t think he’ll get a stage win this year at a grand tour but a couple top fives would be definitely

Progress from where he was last year Bor you not counting Samuel D on is he still there I know I think he’s retired but I mean in terms of did he ever win a Grand Tour stage probably not but s Bennett is down for Paris n well uour and then Paris n so

They haven’t really they haven’t coming out with any team if he’s going to the jro tour or whatever um before we carry on Samuel Dean has won a grandall stage he won a Sprint stage in N where him or my and William fish um sprinted the O between themselves Dean just just kind

Of hit meit of a blast from the past I don’t know so Bennett if he gets sent to the J so many Sprints there already I’ll just be R but I I feel like a the whole Bennett discussion it’s not even really what we want to talk about it was more P we

Wanted to talk about I mean like I say we talked about him last week as prospects of women Monument obviously he didn’t win all four stages he lost to Tom man Brook so obviously Edison is now was officially um as is everybody else who finished

Behind SW ped was so good like he was at times isolated and still just rode on the front on that stage two and then just still won anyway in a Sprint like not even close I was like how is this guy in such good form I mean if he’s

Going to like a if he’s going to the opening weekend which I’m not sure if he is OB the on Loopers only few weeks away from the day of recording mightbe 13 days something like that it’ll be less than two weeks by the time that it goes

Out but Hon’s going there he’d be really dangerous but he’s definitely looking like a guy who’s in such good form right now he’s you know a Sun Ray most definitely on a c Ty that’s his next race that’s this next race apparently yeah apparently he’ll probably be Dr dumped

Into something in between shley kerer and yeah true he’s won ker in the past right maybe I lied he did in 2021 just there we go yeah you’re right well done you’re they will merge into each other in a way so now this begs the question will M’s

Person win a grand tour wait what I’m kidding I’m kidding we did the discussion last week about that so I feel like mes p and does they add anything this win in terms of our discussion last week whether because there wasn’t a w vard there wasn’t a

Match Uno there wasn’t a tacha to be Devil’s Advocate but it’s quite funny when you watch like look at the previous winners of this race and you have Nidra kintana Ian sza and now Mass pillson unique list yeah there wasn’t really like a big Mountain Stage this year

Which I think did kind of kill it a little bit there I see um but it’s I I I think what this shows is that like Pon is kind of slept on as like a Time Tri list as well I know that pring field wasn’t like super high I

Mean yob s finished in second place just mentioning his name again um Sweden mention um and like he he is a really really strong time TR I think we sometimes forget this about him like for a prologue boom top five I think he should like be beginning like a grand

Tour in that kind of list too bad we don’t have any prolog of the grro or the tour oh how many of the like the the big whatever six whatever are going to all monuments a lot of them are going to the edge I SAR quite a few of them

Like just bailing on Rond and San Ron I can B I think I saw something earlier this week somebody said oh you know vander’s just a lck basically to win all these because he’s just like the only one going but I don’t know I think Pon provide some pretty serious

Competition like it one surpris me at the like Podium like Ronda because how is not going um he’ll probably beat W so like Matthew who he has to worry with so it’s like a Podium is almost like a lot for pedis if you take where he’s at at the

Moment it’s just beating vand is going to be the main thing I think is of course we haven’t really seen b doing anything I think he was I don’t know probably skiing last time I saw him I think would said he was playing golf is a little bit concerning but you know he

He is the king after all he can do what he wants but pedison to be in I don’t know hasn’t happened before yet I think so um I’m apprehensive to you know blow too much smoke up pedons really I mean that’s a good place to finish plent RAC

To get through as well from King to King I guess king of Belgium rco Mano won uh race as well attacking from 55 53 km out well no one was really in touch I think Isaac Del Toro got close at one point but uh eventually he won with well

Almost two minutes uh down to Second Place uh did you guys watch this race I mean you and told us before recording that this is actually a new race so it’s not like we didn’t know it existed it’s a brand new race in Portugal and we know

How many Portuguese fans there are as well so why not have a a big race other than just the alav and the wela Portugal which is still a 2.1 race I think the longest race I think outside of ground tours okay in all furnace there was an

Edition last year but I mean the second edition is practically new yeah the there are some interesting results there with e lip winning Vito brat in second place uh one of the writers from anmal I didn’t he really wasn’t on my radar to get a Podium at this race but he he was

Up there mark hisy finished in top 10 as well woo doing doing what he’s he does best which is sort of second stroke third tier one day races um but I mean this is just an AOL Victory isn’t it like my hard take is that a theole is

Like kind of boring sometimes like leage last year boring race once pachu crashed out Le the year before boring like he just sometimes just wins when he’s like really strong World Championships was boring when he was in it as well like you know seeing someone attack with 50k

To go and win all the way to the end like it’s just a bit of a snooze Fest to be honest but he’s winning again he’s the first of the big guys to start winning this year I think probably I mean that’s not hard that only been one

One month of racing Stephen Williams true oh come on come off it um but it’s it’s impressive to hear he’s now in 51 victories for a guy who’s just 24 years of age I think you are right whenever Haven wins like remove of Welter from our equation um his all of his victories

Are even likely you or had just some big solo attack and we know the result with like an hour of racing left to go so like he’s incredibly efficient even did this a tour Denmark when he won that like that was just escaping away on this is legit

Just a 2019 result he just attacked he was like pure Junior Remco all over again and I guess because there weren’t any of like galacticos in there that he was able to do that because you if there isn’t this competition group two Tactics come into play real quick and nobody

Wants to chase down the Belgian era bullet who is also case anybody forgot the world T Champion you know you’re going to need three men on the front to start to bring him back so yeah I mean Remco he’s going to Bol to our guard next week he’s probably the favor to win

That because soon it’s got TT in there as well he’s won it twice oh shoot you bring up something I mean I want to talk a bit more about Remco so I’ll talk about the pockock thing a bit later because he took a k very famous One in calpe sticking on

Remco how do you stop this you said three Riders on the front there was plenty of teams there but couldn’t really handle it is it just like well we saw it at the worlds where they well there’s no radio at Worlds but is it

Just like T at Le or RIT or whoever they have to be on his wheel all the time because if you if he gets 10 meters you’re not going to see him again because like you said incredible engine world time trial champion and so aerodynamic yeah that that’s really it

To be to be honest it’s just I think those guys have to sort of stick with them we’ve seen time and time again that like it’s hard for teams to bring it back and whether that be the tour of Poland whether be the World Championships here

In this one day race in Portugal or Le Bast Le it’s so hard for these guys to bring it back so just has to kind of be someone following him on his wheel and we’ve seen guys try to follow him as well who aren’t quite in that galactical bracket like pck at

Leer and it just hasn’t quite worked out for them so it really is Bleak but he’s just got such good sort of brute force on him that he makes winning this easy yeah exactly it’s a bit like you know again with pson saying like he’s been doing St

Good this week but well last two weeks but it’s because the competition’s not there like even the ball didn’t have competition here um is he going to easily clean up our car because there isn’t well what out there to be fair so maybe like fre him out so he’s

Competition hack it but if there isn’t a pig out RIT a yonas there then it’s just so easy for Remco to just deploy back to 2019 and just just paying it off the front with an hour of racing gets 30 seconds and then 30 seconds becomes a minute and then at that point

The race is gone I think that you know the only problem will come when he gets to the T because then there’s every good person there and he won’t be able to do that so M’s just like the king of is this make some people mad he’s the king

Of just like really mopping up when the competition’s not very great that’s just great PS fair enough I mean looking at you and ywn where it’s almost cyc cross territory for you in here so I mean I’m I’m sorry I it’s this this week has been very hard on my body

Um yesterday bit of you andlaw I did the sub crawl so Glasgow has a subway line it’s just got one around the city and there’s a pop CW you can do where you have a beer at every subway stop so I did that yesterday my body feels like a

War zone my body feels like stage 19 of the 2019 to of France um yeah thanks for that you did that very image thanks I’ve actually got actually got a the the newspaper cover from from that stage in the background over there but I feel really really

Rough so I’m sorry if I’m not quite my usual self today you can probably tell the fact that my my voice sounds like I’ve I don’t know swallowed a cheese grater anyway I mean what I wanted to talk about was Pitcock is that he apparently took the K or the CER rats or

The CER rates however you say it called in Danish but I don’t know how you say it in Spanish this is for context the climb the most Pros use when they ENC palpate to kind of gauge their form etc etc this is also the climb where a young

Yis spingle took the K in 2018 I believe and as a result of that well there was many other factors as well that’s why why yombo signed him and Juan Yuzu took it in the 31st of December last year and now Tom piog is taking 30 seconds out of

His time so my question is is Tom piog just phenomenal is he going to win the Tour now because is he going to finish on the podium at the no oh God prob not that’s yorman saying this they’re going to take your citizenship for this can’t come back in Yorkshire after this

If to stay in the L District I’m defected defected to I don’t know I I I would love to get on a HP with it I really would but I mean you can take one thing obviously the fact that he’s taking it is a sign but he’s got really good legs fantastic

You know is an absolute tick in the Box good stuff is but it’s just like people if it’s if that’s the only effort he did on the day and he like completely fresh you know you you could probably take it and take that 30 seconds whereas

You know AO I think he did it like once before and then did and then took the K afterwards so it’s kind of like what’s the repeated eff kind of you know this would be very similar to pit rolls up to the b u again rubbish R goes up hat down on

If he and then do like inane what’s pilo everybody over reads it and then he gets spattered the all because there’s not just one climb in a lot of t mountain stages has like multiple ones and it’s the accumulation of the E which makes them harder you know as after you know

Gia last in 2022 that was the thing was really crafted not necessarily the final clus the accumulation so I would don’t get me wrong obviously in great form but I think we you see more from like the the multiple Mountain stages so I think that all give us a better indication as to

What kind of GC Contender is but I think it’s definitely a step up last year yeah like this probably isn’t enough of of a sign to say that he’s going to win a grand tour let’s be real um but B go one two and he time true but he

Usch exactly um also V got it in 2018 come on that was like before that was four years before he went a to to France I don’t know pitock as you say these Long Mountain days he just seems to struggle on them too much I don’t think

He’s quite up there in the upper echon in terms of his time triling yet I I think his schedule’s hard with the mountain by King Focus cycl cross and doing grand Tours we’ve never really seen this before we see guys do these different disciplines like Vanderpool

But then not do a grand tour it’s such a different frame and such a different build and also just the timings of it all cyc cross works because it’s in the winter mountain biking season is quite like summer focused and if he’s focusing on grand Tours then he can’t really

Balance out both so as much as anyos great ideas would love him to be their new grand tour force and how much they’re allegedly paying according to that Getta Delo sports article it would make a lot of sense for him to be a grand tour Contender but I just do not

See it to be honest I think baby steps even a top 10 at of grand tour he’s now done two not reach top 10 either time he was close in 2022 but for him to be in a discussion about winning a grand tour he needs to finish in top 10

First yeah absolutely I mean this if back to the what What stages of what the mountain stages in this fall last year did peock do well in it was gr Columbia one climb and it was where just War CL at the end of the day sorry Patrick I don’t know if you’re

Aware of this but just you did a thumbs up I didn’t I don’t know what this is but on screen they just put a big thumbs up emoji good day yeah for me silly does it work with like with the thumbs down as well what this is sorry anyway um Zoom for

To aside hcock did well on the mountain stages where there was just one climb in the day at the end of the day it’s just like what’s pilo bash but when you get to the multiple mountains that’s where he started to struggle so I think that’s kind of like the

Natural that’s the natural next to take I I do think that he could finish top 10 and I think alar will be really interesting to watch to see how TT’s develop because there is a TT in there so we’ll see how it Stacks up yeah okay that’s fair enough with pitock yeah

It is just one climb and many of the big guys don’t even upload their rides to straa so there might be faster times as well uh alleged Remco did even faster apparently this year so makes sense allegedly so did I upload it I want to keep everyone humble me

Make sure that everybody knows that I am person who is the a throne of white you know but it is good signs it is good signs whatever it’s still I’ve got such good form I can actually do seven wats of kilo for like 180 minutes straight

It’s just that no hav uploaded guys not going to lie if you went to the jro you could probably finish top 20 anyway given its current start list I mean pck should be that why not anyways UAE tour has started as well the moscat classic and the women’s edition as well Was Won

By favorite of the podcast as well I have to say by you two how much of you did you guys watch it and it looked like it was another Belgian dominance once again by a superstar the Superstar yes sure it was a UAE women’s tour UAE tour

Women um ironic I know um Lorena weas took stage one in Dubai Harbor Lena weas took stage two again on stage three at jabel hait it was L keki who took that one ahead of NE Brad briy and mavi Garcia in third place and finally on

Stage four Amber KAG took the stage win for Fran de Suz not related to The Men’s team despite um what the name suggests overall L keki took the win the world champion in that rainbow jersey of hers with NE Bradbery in second place mavi Garcia in third and little little guini

Finished in fourth place I watched it don’t I did actually watch it or people call meist or something I actually did this is actually some of the first pring what I watched live F enough even though I’ve said that I don’t want be all yeah I mean the thing

Is when Rock up to a race it kind of just makes every other team because they have the fastest Sprint I I was going to do a f of again I was going to trigger the Emoji how they’ve got the fastest Sprinter in bers and they’ve got the best Classics Rider in

Ki and it now turns out that Ki is now one of the best climers in the whole women’s bellaton so nobody could catch a break it’s not even like you could be like oh well balling isn’t here so we’re safe it’s like no you’re not you’re not

Safe at all because now I got Ki I thought it was insane he won it was it was pretty it was a phenomenal performance and I did not expect happen at all like she did just insane work to just hang in there then just outs Sprint

Me BR three of I was just like wow I mean shapo because that was incredible an is fully set for another Classics winning campaign but I think the more interesting part is her climbing I mean she did show it at all last year she finished top 10 GC in the to of France

Found it wouldn’t surprise me if she finished on the podium this year to be hon I think the course is quite suited to it I know it finishes up out but that opening we’s got quite a lot of Latter rolling terrain I honestly I do think

That balling and Kaki could both be on the podium uh coming it’s going to say it’s Paris but it doesn’t go it’s Paris no it starts in the Netherlands and it’s like sticking to the French border Like Glue um until it gets to the Alps but I mean

You mentioned Ving that that is a bit of a sort of a sticky situation because that’re they’re both on the same team like if if they weren’t on the same team you could probably say that she’s got a better chance of winning the TOA France but like I also think Toto France is

Probably the easiest out of all the grand n know the Welter probably is easier but um it’s one of the easier grand Tours to win for the women and I think yeah if if varing wasn’t on the same team she’d definitely have a really

Good shot to sort of lead um a squad but I just don’t think keki has that leadership experience yet in sort of a week long stage race this was only 4 days and I had sort of one decisive stage in these weekl long stroke grand Tours there are more stages and I think

That leadership role is it’s more important and she hasn’t done that in that kind of format before she’s great at leading the classics team and one day stuff but um it’ be interesting to see if she can slot into that role she’s been performing so so well so far and

Last year the Tour of France was incredibly impressive but she wasn’t the leader there she was kind of under the wing of L keki sorry I my bad frean slip I just wonder how Vier teams lining up for that race when they’re facing Capi ballering Mar Rosa Vias

Blanas plus two others I think theya seven like nobody stands a shot of it even getting a look in like it’s not even like there’s a a van Lon anymore to provide s Intrigue it’s almost just like a done deal before we even Rock up to the starless maybe little Tre could

Spice things up with Longo borghini and G Len true but to go by I could to get SP it is still Fe is febru like just because you’re going well in February doesn’t mean you’re going well in July so take that room exactly people who win crits in February don’t win them and

July it’s a Well proven fact I mean we we have quite a long program already I mean next coming to one of the races that I really wanted back on the calendar is back tour of Colombia did a preview of it last week but in terms of

Um the spectacle we’ seen wins by gavia wins by Mark cish taking a win as well very good lead out by aana then we had the Colombian national champion taking stage win as well then yesterday well yesterday for us on time recording was Richard caterp pass taking a win but not

Taking the overall Jersey and we also saw big slip UPS from nro kintana but uh at let to lenko the favorite of the podcast what a ride by him probably well Harold ha took a win as well but he was probably doing a lot of work to kind of

Get the services of heral Taha locked in for the tour to France but uh yeah what have you kind of made of the col tour Colombia no tour Colombia and uh do you think naido is basically as Patrick would say washed first of all stupid name name it

Tor of Columbia name it Welter Columbia I know they’re different races but tour Columbia it just looks a bit uncomfortable as a native speaker of English yeah I mean it’s been cool to see see some some big names win finally caver has got a win again it’s been such

A long time and Kevin Dish as well and I mean t I’ve always felt as been like a little bit overrated by us but now he’s kind of proved it he’s proved that that he’s kind of the real deal I mean back to Cavendish that Sprint train looked really really good

So do I have to dig up the debate again about Will he win that stage because in your face Eddie Ms is coming it’s coming I’m so tired of of having this discussion every time Mark Cavendish does well can can he win this to to France stage I was really looking

Forward to never having to talk about it again last year after the tur of France but now we’re having to talk about it for a whole other seven months please do it please G win a tur of France stage let’s do it why is the tour in September this

Year oh I can’t do maths I can’t count this this is this is well documented on on the channel I mean you guys just went with cend dis and I was asking about nidl man who didn’t look great to be honest let’s start with the negatives is

There anything to say really he he had the year suspension or couldn’t find a team or whatever didn’t want to go down on Continental and uh here in his home tour they all say that this is like the Tour of France for the the Colombian Riders didn’t quite live up to where he

Was EF looked brilliant by the way they had who was it they had sepa I think up there they had Chavez attacking looking quite Lively and then Richard cbat really just doing well and cedo their former EF guy was up there as well so uh maybe someone should sign him

Israel uh movie star anyone yeah um also I mean we’re going for canana but I think EGA Bernal as well has not quite been looking as good as he should be he was fourth though national team he’s a deform matur to France TR yeah like almost you know died again I didn’t want

To say the dword but yes um um I was expecting more maybe I’m just a cynical person but I was expecting a little bit more from him and what I find interesting is that Rodrigo conteras is leading this race was Kazu ran Bernal all here like great Granda Riders all podiumed big races

Before um contras a guy who was sort of evaporated from the world tour level about three years ago after Co just suddenly jumped into the into the frame here with a really good chance of winning this race is absolutely wild how yeah he’s like he’s leading Jonathan kaiso is second and then car

Was in third or something like that and going into like the final stage about this just mental how these guys from was like yeah like some Continental whatever team now that they ride for are fully beating World T level climbers and they are just said this February you know people who are winning

In February don’t AR winning in but still you know it’s it’s cool to see these names from you know the past of World Tour reminding us that they still exist I really like it but if this is their high point they’re going to Peak for this whereas caras he doesn’t care

About tour of Columbia in that sense like his goal is the Tour of France so maybe that’s yeah but he’s here you know he’s going to want to race but yeah I mean I do agree but then at the same time it’s a guy who just he’s at the

Continental level you know hasn’t been at the world tour level for a number of years it’s like wow he’s he’s still here um but I back to canana I’ve heard some people say that he could Podium the go is that too ambitious do you think maybe

I think given this I mean like you were saying like people come a to race it’s not like haraz is doing fine lots of the other kind of World Tour level guys are doing fine why is canana getting SP so hard it’s like it’s not like he’s just

Coming in here just to kind of I don’t know just take the mix and just parade around it’s like surely you hope for a bit more from yourself than being thrashed around by some Continental level people I think it is a little bit concerning to me it’s kind of like the

Year out has really taken a toll on again I know it is T columia and maybe it’s just like too much to read into it but is it is it not a little bit concerning that him as a world T level climate who is being Ted to be in some

People’s eyes like you and said contending the podium of his year this year is it not a bit concerning that it’s doing just utterly awful at this race that you’d think he’d be doing better and be in mind this is a guy who has performed well at this race in the

Past when he was World Tour yeah it is definitely worrying to see this and I mean ma star will be sort of regretting their choices potentially by bringing kintana back back into their Rags cuz uh yeah really hasn’t been up there and been competitive at all sign Caso movie

Star go on do it l should be wish they could um wish they could do a trade like like American is there a clause in the contract if you’re lower than top three then we can get rid of you get contas in there as well who’s obviously doing well

You know why not we also the concerning thing is that canana did really fast in the National CH TT um of which there are two TTS in Theo and he will therefore be losing literal I mean what what how many minutes down reing how many minutes has Katana G to

Lose to the G in those TTS four minutes maybe half an hour half an hour I mean okay let’s say we’ll split the difference five five minutes you Ain about back Gap wa I know that the theory isn’t to pach but there’s going to be people there

Who’s doing you know negating by time better than is marar made a blunder here so far and they’re going to be hoping for more for sure from a guy who’s warn te like CRS in the past just yeah hopefully he does better but I mean he

Is also a guy who race in a very different era of cycling but I am going to be a little bit sort of optimistic dare I say like the patcha riding style like like the aggressive style is like although canana rode in a very boring

Time for GC I think he was one of the more daring and attacking Riders but sort of go longer doesn’t mind going solo so maybe that style will help him against the other contenders for second third fourth place maybe not Pacha but like the guys who are trying to sort of

Emulate paga even if they’re going to be like a couple minutes down on him it could be interesting to see how he reacts with all these guys he hasn’t really raced with in the past that year out and also just not being on the world tour level before for a couple of years

Has definitely taken him out of that top tier of racing and he hasn’t ridden a grand toour that isn’t the tot of France in a while I mean to talk about n canana all day um the tour of Colombia is almost finishing as well but right

Over the week we have all the races wait what what is that what I mean the tour of a man has started but that’s not really what I wanted to go through but I I was thinking we cover that next week can I say the dword the dword

Demar oh oh okay fair enough yeah for it there’s a big doping investigation happening right now um and it’s it’s not looking good two Riders have had issues St um well statements issued by the UCI this week first of all the cat this one breaks my heart Frankie

Good loving as his name translates to is bio passport didn’t quite link up in one of his samples and then later in the week anine TL hook as well got flagged up I thought I thought the tall hook one was interesting cuz he did sort of disappear from the world tour riding for

A continental team at the moment but uh we don’t know what’s going to happen former teammates have like made sort of statements on social media like saying that he would never do this but I mean people are going to do that people are going to say things like that we don’t

Know anything for sure yet in terms of the further investigation but these two statements coming out this week is worrying for the weeks to come also I had no idea Anto hook used to ride for tinkov saxa as a child back in 2015 who knew I don’t want to say his name but

The timing that antoan to hook now rides for that Portuguese what was like last GL drives but it’s not anymore and went to the Portuguese team which you know in pre previous years watch his teams W 52 all those people little bit think he literally went to

About team and the day it happened this happened I’m not saying the two are related but it’s just really quite humorous timing that those two things happen obviously it’s not humorous that he’s been flagged up but yes it is a little bit concerning that he’s there been two cases you know

Usually we’re used to a SP sporadic you know one or two like you know a Hing kind of you know dabbling every so often but yeah two in one week espcially on the World level as well um I’m not sure what’s happened maybe the UCI put in another test maybe

They’ kind of looking for a different biomarker or something in people’s samples I don’t really know so maybe they’ve just stepped up something we just C two people uh but hopefully we don’t get anymore we just kind of it just remains nice and squeaky clean for the rest of

The year yes let’s hope I also don’t see bonamore wiped out of the World Tour level that’ll make me very very sad I mean thanks y for bringing the mood down so we’ll have to bring it up with r of the week we haven’t covered GPL miria as

Well won by Olaf Koy yeah we’re also like tman stages being won by sprinters in form of Caleb and someone else can’t quite remember I can’t remember oh yeah true yeah yeah yeah okay so I mean plenty of favorites in terms of podcast favorite so we also

Even had the tour of ital Italia in Turkey as well so yeah who are you guys going to give your right over the week two this week um I’m gonna go with Ben fer black for winning the Muscat classic and also for winning stage two of a t of our man

You know we had things been kind of I think developing the last couple years I think I was really looking forward to seeing a couple of breakout performances this year and I do think that we’re already glimpes of that he was okay and tore down under feeling a little bit ill

Apparently but yeah wi the mus was just insane you know he’s he’s quite a large you know he’s like a ruler kind of type so that was just really impressive to see and he also you know put people in the freaking Hurt Locker on stage two which an uphill finish and it wouldn’t

Surprise me if he was top three maybe top five at the end of the week for for man so I’m very much looking forward seeing what he’s going to do this week yeah he went a really nice stage of the chilia last year as well yeah um looked

Super good there also shout out to pigan who won um the tour of antalia for py coma but he’s not my R of the week oh there’s a really obvious one okay I’m gonna go the obvious one I I feel like Scott’s gonna take I can be contrarian so I’m just

Going to piss you off my ride of the week is is mass Pac um I think no I generally think Pon like I said this last week as well if he were around in a different generation then he would be his Praises would be sort of sung a hell

Of a lot more he’s a fantastic writer super versatile um just it’s a shame that he’s rioting against vaner Paul vanard and these kind of guys because otherwise I think he’d be a bit of a generational Talent Scott sorry now you have to rethink it wow okay my writer of

The week is Alberto besso uh thank you I mean I can’t pick him because I don’t me so happy when when you make me Rider of the week okay okay I’m gonna go well he didn’t win a race but just for because he’s podcast favorite and he absolutely put

The her locker on and for whatever reason aana wanted to isolate harada instead of keeping him and whatever so Alex lei lenko I’ll give him right of the week but I mean Richie carteras could have had her as well but yeah season baby yeah it’s coming it’s coming like top

Five in the tour maybe not not this year go to the J and let see we know you watch this podcast hopefully um but yeah who guys the tone was going up and now it’s back yeah sorry but I mean uh any any final thoughts soon oh sorry go again go again

Um Gran Cino is coming up soon so looking forward to that true and this AAR ad r del soul and finishing up man next week so we’ve got so much racing to get through but day racing yeah that’s true well anyways with that that’s basically it for this uh what episode 55

If you haven’t already make sure to hit the like button subscribe to the channel as well cuz that really helps and get involved in comments we really do appreciate the funny comments as well and uh yeah we’ll do a comments section next week I think check us out on

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