Road Adventures of Cycling Men of Leisure
Adam Baranski’s and Michael Sharp's friendship is built on a shared love of cycling. From tough trails to leisurely rides, their adventures are filled with stories, banter, and authentic connection. Their podcast blends entertaining anecdotes, heartfelt conversations, and cycling excitement—welcoming you into their community and the joy of the open road.
Road Adventures of Cycling Men of Leisure
We Forgot The Theme Song And Pogacar Still Went Nuclear
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Rain turns a mountain stage into a pressure test, and Stage 14 of the Tour de France makes that painfully clear. We jump from a few real-life road problems of our own (including a theme song blunder we have to own) straight into a day of relentless climbing, aggressive racing, and descents that look terrifying even from the couch.
We break down the Stage 14 route and why the raw numbers matter: 153.3 km, roughly 3,800 meters of elevation, and four categorized climbs that never let riders settle. Then we get into the story everyone’s talking about, Tadej Pogacar’s latest statement ride in yellow. We explain how UAE Team Emirates keeps control, why the attack timing is so devastating on steep gradients, and what it signals for the general classification. We also hit the key supporting results, Del Toro right there again, plus 19-year-old Paul Seixas lighting it up and taking the white jersey.
The most intense segment is the weather. We talk wet tarmac, team radio warnings, and the split-second decision-making behind high-speed hairpins when traction is limited and mistakes multiply. After that, we look ahead to Stage 15 with a summit finish and discuss who still has a real window to take time back, even if the overall win is starting to feel out of reach. We wrap with a community check-in on RAGBRAI 53 as Iowa heats up, including hydration and safety tips and our plan to try getting updates from the road.
If you enjoyed the breakdown, subscribe, share this with a riding buddy, and leave a quick review. What part of rainy mountain racing makes you the most nervous?
Adam and Michael’s friendship has grown through years of shared miles, challenges, and laughter on the bike. Their passion for cycling has carried them through life’s twists and turns, creating a bond full of stories, jokes, and unforgettable rides. In their podcast, they bring that same spirit to the mic—sharing adventures, trading banter, and welcoming listeners into their cycling community. Whether tackling steep climbs or cruising open roads, their conversations capture the fun, friendship, and freedom that cycling brings. Tune in for stories that celebrate the ride and the camaraderie that makes it unforgettable.
and Remember,
It's a Great Day for a Bike Ride!
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All right, ladies and gentlemen, welcome back to Road Adventures of Cycling Men of Leisure. Once again, we are here for the leisure breakaway. I do apologize. It is me again.
SPEAKER_04Hey, hey, hey, hey, back the party bus up. Oh, look at Michael's in the house.
SPEAKER_00Look who decided to come back to the show. I'm just kidding, buddy.
SPEAKER_04Well, you know, I had this all and I had this all planned out. It was going to be perfect. What I didn't realize spend a few days in hot springs. Hey, you know what? Spring and center street. I got great. I had to drive, you know, five minutes, boom, could sit there, do the podcast. No problem. Uh, what
Welcome Back And Travel Chaos
SPEAKER_04I didn't realize is the last two nights of our trip, she decided to go to uh Buffalo River National or Buffalo Buffalo Natural uh National River. It's a national park. Uh or national river, I should say. And uh, which was great, cool, loved it. Kudos for finding it. Well, you know, we floated and all that. The only problem is the only internet you can find or sell service for that matter, is like 35 miles in any direction from where you're at. And it's mountainous and hilly, and so I could not find any internet service. And then when I did find service, I had like one bar, which wasn't gonna work.
SPEAKER_00So well, I uh advocated yesterday, uh I think yesterday. I said now that you have a job, uh it's time for some Starlink when you're traveling, buddy.
SPEAKER_04So anyways, we actually talked about that yesterday too.
SPEAKER_00Hey, listen, you know what? It's okay. Um, I'm hoping that uh the pronunciations were a little bit better. I know I did miss you. I'm happy to be back with you, sir. This is uh our little project. This is your uh Tour to France coverage, leisure breakaway, and uh happy that I was here and home and able to step in. I do have a confession though. It it it never goes 100% perfect, and I I robbed our community. I really, I really made a oops. So we use a platform, Riverside. We've never been secretive about that. Who cares? I mean, it's a piece of software where we record, big deal. Riverside decided to change their um editing platform, and because I'm so ingrained, and I always what's funny is I always tell my employees don't do this at work, and I was just so ingrained on click, click, click, bang, bab, bang, bang, uh, get the export, get it uploaded, yada yada yada, put it, you know, do whatever they do. Well, believe it or not, and I'll show you when we're done recording,
The Missing Theme Song Mistake
SPEAKER_00they switch the top bar with the middle bar. So I hit the button that we don't like, which removes all like the this and all that stuff. Unfortunately, they moved it around. And so, yeah, okay, no big deal. Record the show. You and I were struggling to get get the show out, and so it was late, and I'm trying to get it done. Well, let's just say a few community members reached out to me and said, uh, excuse me, no leisure breakaway song. We're really loving that song. Well, I have a confession, not last night, but the night before, uh, the beginning and the end. Yeah, yeah, that's a blooper, buddy. You can blame me.
SPEAKER_04Just I hope you were dancing to it or you know, doing your little thing or something, because that'll look really funny. Oh 35 seconds of Adam, you know, weave into nothing but dead.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_04Well, listen, uh I did not give you permission to utilize the uh the leisure breakaway song. So that's what I would have used. It's like, well, Michael didn't give me permission, so I couldn't use it. But I have it right here on a fast button. Listen.
SPEAKER_03Welcome through the leisure breakup.
SPEAKER_00Oh, okay, okay, okay, okay.
SPEAKER_04I was trying to give you a polite way of getting out of it, but you blew it.
SPEAKER_00I made a mistake. I it was my fault. Uh you know what? Nevertheless, I'm glad you're back.
SPEAKER_04That's what keeps it real.
SPEAKER_00That's right, that's right. Uh, 100,000 plus downloads, and I still screw it up. Well, all kidding aside, welcome back. Why don't we re-spin up? Because you have a real exciting way of talking about it, but you're gonna be impressed. I can prove that I watched today. So go ahead, ladies and gentlemen. Mr. Sharp, take over the show.
SPEAKER_04All right, welcome back to Cycling Men of Leisures, leisure breakaway. Today the tour rolled into the higher mountains uh with four categorized climbs. They were relentless. Uh we had some weather, which made things even tougher, some some rain. Uh, one rider reminded us the site or reminded the cycling world and us uh why he's wearing yellow. Uh, it was very evident uh the reason why Toddy has the yellow jersey. Um let's break down stage 14 and we'll look ahead at another brutal day tomorrow in the mountains. How about that? Sounds good.
Stage 14 Route And Numbers
SPEAKER_04All right. Today, 153.3 kilometers. Americans, that's 96.5 miles. Total elevation, uh 3,800 meters. Again, for us, that's 12,470 feet of climb. Four categorized uh mountains. Uh, there was three category category number ones and a category number two. Big surprise. Uh Toddy with the UA UAE team uh Emirates pulled off the win again today. His winning aver his average speed that he won with was 38.80 kilometers an hour, which is 24.1 miles per hour. And this is with four categorized mountains. That's incredible.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I mean, I would have got the same thing if I was going down. Some yeah, but to go down, you gotta go up.
SPEAKER_04Oh, biggest story of the day. Taddy does it yet again. He is beautiful at this. He struck uh, you know, and launched his attack on one of the uh one of the mountains there, a category one mountain, rode away from everyone to uh to win that uh fourth stage of this tour, which it extended his overall lead. Uh Del Toro finished second again. Del Toro is right there. Those two are like really getting in sync, working together. Um and then the 19-year-old French writer, Paul Seychus, uh finished third, moving him into fourth overall, and he captured the white jersey as the best young writer. Now, I know a couple of episodes ago, I did not think anybody was gonna take it away from ASO, but uh it has been taken away from him. I'm still gonna say that he's not gonna maintain it the full way, or he's not gonna have it, I should say, when he gets to Paris, but we'll see. And then unfortunately, Joeis uh Jonas Bandigo uh lost more time. Um, so it's a little worse and worse there. What's that?
SPEAKER_00So did Evanpool. He lost a little time too.
SPEAKER_04So yeah. Um so basically today, rain, aggressive breakaways, and repeated attacks. Um, but honestly, all day it was controlled really by uh UAE team emirates. They pretty much kept the whole race under control. And uh, I mean, what more can you say? He uh Toddy is just killing it on these mountains. And and what's beautiful about it, he's not just killing it, he is attacking, attacking on these huge mountain climbs. And it is, I mean, it's beautiful to see um that somebody can just be that strong and so many places to attack, but he knows if he attacks on those mountains that he anybody anybody who wants to try
Pogacar Strikes And GC Shifts
SPEAKER_04to uh provide some competition, he knows that they're not going to be able to keep up because he hits it just at the right time. So it's it's beautiful to watch.
SPEAKER_00Let's talk about the weather and the rain. It said uh around 25 degrees Celsius, Celsius, excuse me, with sunshine, alternating with rain showers, cooler on the climbs, but the rain mattered. Riders descended, oh, cooled the hog under light rain and and wet. Okay, so I'm watching today. And um now I'm gonna be honest with you. I'm gonna I'm gonna be 100% honest with you. I went out golfing, um, and then I had some chores, but then I came in and I'm watching all the highlights. There's two different reels that I'm like. I even watched your favorite Lance Armstrong's podcast a little bit. Um But um I gotta tell you, watching okay, so it must be a motorcycle with the camera, who's who's like right in front of them, and watching those guys come down the hill in the rain, I I'm getting anxiety. I'm I mean, I'm I'm I'm thinking to myself, someone is gonna slip out, something's gonna happen. I mean, I heard uh uh I don't want to be dishonest if it was uh Lotitrek or uh EAU team, but they're you know, up in the right hand corner they show you the the radio transmission and it's uh there's the kilometer 15, there's rain on the on the downs on the downside. Go slow, go slow, maintain control, control, focus, focus, focus. And I'm like, focus. These guys are rolling at 38 kilometers an hour, and then and the camera has to keep sh uh changing the plastic lens in front of the because they have so much rain on, and I'm thinking to myself, oh my gosh, I mean, that has to, I mean, I know they're professionals, I get it, they're professionals, but just watching at home just was giving me the heebie jeebies. So, I mean, did that give you any kind of inclination, or you've seen it before, so it's no big deal.
SPEAKER_04I mean, I've seen it before, but I'm not gonna tell you that when I see it every single time, and we've talked about this before, those descents that they're coming down flying, you know, 40, 50, 60 miles an hour down these, you know, hairpin turns and stuff, it's very technical. You really have to understand your bike and you have to understand physics, and you have to understand how the temperature affects that tarmac or that uh the road that you're on. You got to be thinking about all of this stuff as you're going. And sure, your team car is giving you advice, and they're, you know, oh, watch out for this turn. It's, you know, that the tar on the road is is, you know, really uh, you know, slick or whatever, but they're not the ones on the road. And you're flying down
Rain Descents And Bike Handling Fear
SPEAKER_04these things, and there's other riders, and they're technical anyway. It's not just like, hey, I'm gonna hop on my bike and just coast down, but then you add the water to it, yeah, and it I mean, it's just scary as all. I know. I mean, every time I watch it, I'm still like, you know, holding my hands to my face, looking through my fingers, going, Oh my gosh. Um, so yeah, even though these guys are professional still, I mean, there is physics is not working in your favor, and you have to understand that when you go around those curves at that kind of speed with little narrow tires, and oh, it's fan, it's fantastic to watch. But as a cyclist, you know, we've we've been down in the mountains over there in Georgia and stuff, and some of those we've went really fast, but I cannot imagine as fast as they're going with water and everything else. So very impressive.
SPEAKER_00Well, I I will say this. I mean sorry about that. Um I mean when we were in Georgia going down those mountains, I mean that one guy lost control and I mean it was 100% dry, and he still went off the off the deep end. So um not not the not the greatest.
SPEAKER_04Even in Georgia, I think it was like the first day when we were in the mountain areas, uh, there was some hairpin turns, and there was some of where they had done to the extra tar seals, and it hadn't rained. There was a little bit of moisture on the ground, and a couple people uh you know wiped out just going, and it wasn't super steep. Uh they were going around the turns, not real steep, but you know, you your tires hit that rubber or that tar that's on there, and there's a little bit of moisture, and it can send you spinning. So um beautiful, uh beautiful execution. I I think at this point, I don't really see, as I stated a couple days ago, it's even he's even you know kind of cemented it a little bit more. I think we know we know who the winner's gonna be. So uh short of any kind of catastrophe. So we'll see.
SPEAKER_00So um a couple things. I I I got uh uh the couple people left the race um despite the treacherous wet uh descents, no significant, no significant crashes, uh, but uh two riders left the race after finishing outside the time limit. Um but um I I'm I'll let you talk about um the race or what we got tomorrow, and then I have a couple of other non-Tour de France things.
SPEAKER_04Okay. Uh tomorrow's route, 183.9 kilometers. Elevation gain is 3,950 meters. It is a mountain stage. Um, it's gonna be another one of those Alpine Alpine test, and uh it's gonna be a summit finish. So that'll be uh really, really fun. Um, you can just expect more attacks from the GC contenders. Um particularly um this this is tomorrow's the stage. If anyone really hopes to uh to cut into uh Toddy's lead, tomorrow tomorrow's the day to do it. Um I don't know if anybody can, but if you're gonna do it, tomorrow is the day to do it. Um climbers obviously will have another opportunity to shine. And the overall standings uh could see more changes behind the behind the yellow jersey. So uh so we'll have to kind of wait and see how that all uh that all changes out or how it all changes.
Time Losses Time Limit And Reality Check
SPEAKER_00Perfect. All right, well, uh good news. Uh our friends, Keith and Melanie, with their de brims on and in good spirit and smile, they held their social please tell me they didn't wear their de brims. Oh, they I have a photograph. They had the de brims on, but it's hot over there. I mean Oh yeah, it's it's it's hot over there. That's sun, they're they're blocking the sun. I mean, the whole point of it is is sun protection. So I mean, don't worry, guys. I I appreciate what you did. So uh they did send me a picture, uh, brought me a huge smile. They had a few people that showed up at the library, so that's all awesome. Um I actually boosted it on Facebook last night, uh, put some of the hard-earned money um and uh try to get the word out, um, which was kind of cool because I got into some organic conversations. What is cycling men of leisure? And and so I said, Oh, it's uh you know, pompous club. I'm just kidding.
SPEAKER_04Um really hard to join.
SPEAKER_00Uh yeah, there's an 85-page report that you gotta fill out. No, um, but got got us some good people just asking some simple questions, and they uh a couple people said they listened to the show, and then one guy wrote and said, Did I know him? And I'm like, depends. You want an
Stage 15 Summit Finish Preview
SPEAKER_00autograph? I know him. So um, but uh, but got me thinking about Ragbri. And so today's the expo. Tomorrow is the first day of Ragbri 53, and I figured I would tell you uh it's 391 miles total, the shortest route uh ever, but the 10th hilliest, and today is expo day in Iwana, and it's opening with a heat wave. Um, heat advisories are in fact across western Iowa, Saturday highs, mid to upper 90s with heat uh above 100 degrees. Iwana first responders have set up misting fans and cooling stations for the 40,000 people in Iowa. Now, so first few riding days. Tomorrow they're gonna ride from uh Ottawa to Harland. Uh they're gonna start in the morning in the upper 70s. Uh mid highs will be mid to upper 90s with a heat index over 100 degrees. Thunderstorms are possible Sunday night. So um hopefully they get camp set up. We've been there for some storms before, but um now this could change, but Monday is expected to be the hottest day with temperatures reaching over 100
RAGBRAI Expo Heat Wave Forecast
SPEAKER_00degrees, heat indexes over 110 degrees, and storm chances chances return Monday night. Uh, and then on Tuesday, the riders should get a little bit of relief. A cold front uh will bring unseasonable dry air, and it should only be a high of mid-80s, um, and then below average temperature mid-week. So um first couple days looks like it's gonna be uh hill and hell. But um we actually uh as long as they get cell phone service and as long as it works out, I hate to make promises, but we are gonna attempt to get a few updates here and there from uh Keith and Melanie, and possibly since we're doing this mini-series, maybe midweek, maybe just get them on the phone for just a few minutes. So it's what we're gonna try. Depending, Ragbri is always hit and miss. Sometimes you can go in and have a hundred great service, and then we'll set up something, and we just won't hear from them. So we're gonna try, but uh we we have our our our mental support and the community support behind any of our team members out in Iowa, but especially I want to thank Heath and Melanie for what they're doing. So um absolutely. Um, besides that, we do we do have tomorrow stage 15, as you mentioned, and um that's all I got right now.
SPEAKER_04Well, all I have to do is have to say about the uh folks out in Iowa. Uh enjoy, be safe, uh make sure you stay super hydrated because obviously you're gonna need it. Uh, tonight you're in uh Iwana, which we have started there before. Uh, I would suggest you guys all go over to the casino and hang out in the air-conditioned enjoyment of the casino. Just a suggestion. Uh, because there's a casino there. Okay. Okay. So um good luck to everybody there. We hope everybody stays safe, and hopefully, we can get uh an update on what's going on there in Iowa this week.
SPEAKER_00Sounds good. And now I know what you all stayed for. I'm gonna give it to you. Do it.
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