SPEAKER_00 0:44

One stage can change a tour. And today, stage four reminds everyone exactly why the tour to France is the greatest race on earth. Under blistering heat, a daring breakaway, uh rewrote the general classification, a familiar face sprinted to victory, and for the first time this year, we got a brand new man in yellow. Welcome back to Road Adventures of Cycling Men of Leisures,

Why Stage Four Changes Everything

SPEAKER_00 1:13

Tour de France, uh Leisure Breakaway, a mini podcast series we're putting together during the Tour de France. I am Michael, and over across the way, virtually at least, is my good friend Adam.

SPEAKER_01 1:30

Ladies and gentlemen from Eastern Time Zone, happy to be here. Adam.

SPEAKER_00 1:36

We won't hold it against him. It's okay. Nobody does. It's great day today. It was just insane. What we're gonna do is we're gonna take the next couple of minutes to break down everything you need to know from today's uh 182-kilometer battle. Um which included uh new stage winner, Jersey Shakeups. We'll talk about the biggest moments of the day and what lies ahead for tomorrow. So are you ready? I'm ready. All right. Well, let's ride into stage four, shall we?

SPEAKER_01 2:13

Oh, I feel like I should give you the old uh I'll just give you the beginning here.

SPEAKER_00 2:19

Oh, there we go.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

Okay, go ahead.

SPEAKER_00 2:22

Stage four, it started out at uh Carcassan and ended in Foy, uh 181.9 kilometers to all of our American friends. That's 113 miles. Elevation, they gained about 2,900 meters or 9,500 feet over four categorized climbs. And let me tell you, the weather did not help today. The average temperature was around 40 degrees Celsius. That's 104

Route Stats And Brutal Heat

SPEAKER_00 2:52

degrees Fahrenheit. So this is hot. It has been, and I know you know they've been uh taking the temperature off the tarmac and things like that, and it's like 20, 30 degrees hotter right next to the road. So, I mean, it is just intense there. Uh, the organizers today did add some extra water stations and cooling measures because of the extreme heat. Um, but this morning we had 184 riders start. Um, excuse me, that'd be 183.

SPEAKER_01 3:21

Uh I was gonna I was gonna say correction.

SPEAKER_00 3:25

Uh had 183 because we did have one dropout. Nobody dropped last night. Uh no one abandoned during the stage, although we did have one person who didn't make the time cut, and we'll talk a little bit about that uh in just a second. Um, it was pretty pretty exciting. They had a 34-rider breakaway, which got out early, and the uh Peloton allowed them to build up this massive advantage. Um, general classification teams, including UAE and uh Vizma Lisa Bike, they basically chose not to chase, uh, which basically when they decided not to chase, they basically conceded the stage to the breakaway. Um

The Huge Breakaway Gets Freedom

SPEAKER_00 4:11

Little Trek executed nearly a per perfect tactical uh race. Uh they were able to place multiple riders right up there in the breakaway, and uh they were able to launch uh their rider into victory. And today we had mods uh Patterson uh who was able to capture the stage. Um he was in the breakaway, and what is even better is his teammate Quinn Simmons uh finished second, and uh the reason why I say that is Quinn Simmons is one of the very few uh American or US writers who are in the Tour de France this year. So that was that was pretty cool. Um the average speed for the winner, 27 miles per hour. 43.5 kilometers. Now I know for a guy like you, Adam, you know, that's standing still, but for Mortals like myself, we don't achieve those kind of things.

SPEAKER_01 5:18

We are talking about downhill like we did in Georgia, right? 27 miles an hour. I can do that.

SPEAKER_00 5:23

Yeah, there was uh four category climbs that they had to do. Um, the problem with it is they had to do the climb before they could do the descent. So, no, there was nobody uh Ubering them to the top just to have the fun ride down.

SPEAKER_01 5:38

They uh wait a minute. I did not Uber.

SPEAKER_00 5:44

You're right. You did not Uber. Uber would insinuate that you in fact paid somebody. You did not pay anybody to take you anywhere. All right, move on. All right, well, today uh the jerseys did get mixed around because the two leaders actually fell seven seconds behind. Um, but uh the new overall race lead goes to Torstein Train. Um Mods Pederson uh got the green jersey, Alex Boudine Bodine, uh the King of the Mountains, and uh

Jersey Shakeups And The Time Cut

SPEAKER_00 6:28

uh Muteas Basek. There we go. Got it right, had to read it out of my phonetics here. Uh took the best young writer jersey, and that again is uh writers participating in the Tour de France who are under the age of or who are 26 and under. I said one person is no longer with uh the tour this year. Uh that's Kellen O'Brien, who's on the Jaco team. He was eliminated by the uh the race judges because he missed the time cut. And we haven't really talked about the time cut, uh, but it's this mathematical equation that says when the the first cyclists get to the finish line, they do their mathematical equation. They're saying everybody else needs to finish within this time frame. So it's not like, well, you have all day and all night to get to the end thing. No, they have a cutoff, and basically if you don't make that cutoff, basically uh team uh the uh Tour de France judges basically come over and pulled your uh your number off the back of your jersey and and you're over. So uh Jaco is is minus one one team member. So it's you lose, you know. But I mean when you're looking at that distance, 100 degrees, kudos for being out there, man.

SPEAKER_01 7:55

For sure, for sure.

SPEAKER_00 7:56

So, what do you got?

SPEAKER_01 7:58

All right, so I got a couple things. First of all, our good friend Wade Paul wants us to talk about how Quinn Simmons is the best writer out there, and he sent me a very funny emoji of uh a guy with a mullet next to a truck leaning on there and says, uh, how did you know I'm a Quinn Simmons fan? So, Wade, uh, we are honoring your request. Um, and after uh I sent the picture to Michael, Michael said, Go ahead, Adam, take a second look at him. And so I looked at the actual

Quinn Simmons And The American Vibes

SPEAKER_01 8:27

Quinn Simmons, I see where you're coming from.

SPEAKER_00 8:29

So um mullet of hair, earring, mustache. Yeah. He is uh 100% representing America. So I also have to say, so that was impressive.

SPEAKER_01 8:46

Well, listen, I mean, uh I would come in dead last. I mean, I walked in Georgia. I did not take an Uber, but I definitely walked.

SPEAKER_00 8:57

Uh the uh little judge would have walked up and ripped your number.

SPEAKER_01 9:00

Oh, yeah, that's for sure. Um all right, so now for the interesting piece. Um uh this was actually sent to me again. Um, I love that the community is following along and sending us stuff, so thank you, thank you. Um so today the writers have mechanics, teams of mechanics. So we learned yesterday that um the you know over a hundred tires they keep ready to go, and and and but today I have some information about mechanics. Um in the tour's early decades,

When Riders Fixed Their Own Bikes

SPEAKER_01 9:36

from about 1903 to roughly 1920s, race rules forbidden any outside assistance, and riders had to repair their own bikes with tools they carried themselves. No team cars, no support staff, no swapping bikes. Uh the most famous example is Eugene Christophe, I believe that's how it's pronounced, in 1913. He descended uh the tournament while uh uh uh connection from victory, his front fork snapped. He walked 10 kilometers down the mountain to a village in Santa Maria and found a blacksmith forge and repaired the fork himself, taking about four hours. He was then penalized additional minutes because a local boy pumped the bellows for him, which counted as an outside help. He lost the tour over it. Bad luck struck again in 1919, fork broke while he was wearing the first yellow jersey. Uh other facts from this era said riders often carried spare tubular tires wrapped around their shoulders. Some rode 300 plus kilometer stages starting in the middle of the night, and early rules even required riders to finish on the same bike they started with. Uh the tour founder Henry Desgrande. Is that how you say that?

SPEAKER_00 10:54

Is that how you say it?

SPEAKER_01 10:55

I'm not sure.

SPEAKER_00 10:56

Uh I looked up all my names.

SPEAKER_01 10:58

Oh, okay. Well, thank you.

SPEAKER_00 11:00

I don't know if I still got them right, but I looked them all up.

SPEAKER_01 11:03

I wonder if I can make my computer pronounce this, but um wanted the race to be a test of the individual endurance. He was famously hostile to teamwork and technology, and he resisted until 1937. Uh now, of course, we know there's team cars and and standard fixture after World War II. Today each team re runs multiple support vehicles with pro mechanics and spare bikes. So I just figured I would share that uh interesting history uh information.

SPEAKER_00 11:32

So well, it's kind of sounding like this guy is doing something wrong because everything is his fork kept snapping. So I'm I'm wondering exactly how he was riding that bicycle or whatever, or maybe fork snapping was just like a common bicycle thing back then, but just seemed like he had a lot of issues with his fork.

SPEAKER_01 11:51

Remember when we were kids and we would stick like a stick in the wheel to do an endo? Maybe he was trying special tricks.

SPEAKER_00 11:58

Yeah, I don't think he was trying to do tricks, but uh hats off to him for you know getting on the forge there and pounding and out. So hey, I got I if you run out of things to talk about or to look up, I think it would be interesting if you maybe provided some insight into the nationality of writers. Because I think there's only like five Americans on different teams, and I would be interested to know, and I think our listeners and viewers would be interested to know, you know, what country is most represented? I mean, amongst all the teams. I mean, how many Danes are there? Uh, how many French people are there across all the different uh teams? So I'm not necessarily looking at teams, I'm looking at countries represented on the tour, and I'd be interested to know, say, like what the top three teams. I mean, uh, you know, it's not Mexico or South Africa or you know, one of those. It's but I would be interested to know exactly what countries those are.

SPEAKER_01 12:54

So perfect, which brings me to my next point. Uh oh. Uh if you are paying attention and you're part of the community, and there's something that you would like me to look up or mention on the show, uh, please send me a message. Many of you already are, so uh, I love it. So uh first one on the list is Nationality of Tour de France writers. So thank you.

SPEAKER_00 13:14

I think that would be good. And I didn't talk to you beforehand, but now you know. So uh, you know, and I and I do have to thank everybody out there in our community. Uh we've been getting lots of great feedback. Uh,

Listener Requests And Community Shoutouts

SPEAKER_00 13:26

you know, they've been sending us texts and messages and things like that. Um, getting a lot of people saying they really enjoy it. It's making the tour de France more fun. We're getting some people that are like, I've never paid any attention to it, but now you guys are making me interested, and I want to kind of start uh you know, understanding what this is all about. So uh keep sending your feedback if you have questions. Uh Adam would be happy to do some research.

SPEAKER_01 13:52

I love it. Uh I have to take this moment to say that the uh pushing of this has been shared to the point where we gained a few Instagram uh followers here. We our our numbers have gone up and a few Facebook numbers have gone up. So thank you for for our new members on social media. So uh I'll look up anything you want me to look up, and uh I I will continue following along and learning how to pronounce everything.

SPEAKER_00 14:19

All right, that sounds good.

SPEAKER_03 14:22

Welcome to the show break up.