Rest Day Welcome And Banter

SPEAKER_00 1:29

All right. Welcome back. It is Cycling Men of Leisure's Leisure Breakaway. That is basically our little mini podcast looking at the day-to-day activities at the 2026 Tour de France. It has today is a rest day, but the race thus far has been incredible. There's been crazy mountains, there's been some weather. And we will talk about that and some other things here in the next few minutes. But uh I'm Michael, and with me as always is my good friend from Michigan, Adam.

SPEAKER_01 2:15

Hello, everybody. It's rest day, but no rest for the wicked, as I have a podcast dossier. Wow. That's right. Well, uh, I'm blowing out them tokens on AI. You know, I have a feeling that there's some sort of conspiracy theory. Not that I want to spread conspiracy theories, but the fact that AI calls things tokens and Bitcoin calls things tokens. I kind of find that suspicious. Anyways, it's all imaginary currency. That's right. That's right. I'm loving your Bianchi hat. I mean, it goes along with your Italian stallion bicycle.

SPEAKER_00 3:03

That's right. Sporting the Bianchi bicycle cap here from back in the days when that's what they wore to protect themselves from smashing their head into the concrete.

SPEAKER_01 3:13

Which is like my father told me his first leather football helmet when he played football in high school. And I said, No wonder something's not right with you. Well, that explains it, Dad.

SPEAKER_00 3:26

Yeah, yeah. I like your dad. He's a great guy. I did not know that uh he played football and that they used the leather leather helmets.

SPEAKER_01 3:34

So yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, I didn't know that you were a Windows salesman until about five minutes ago.

SPEAKER_00 3:41

So very, very brief period in my career. But uh yeah, go into people's homes, measure it, tell them, you know, uh, the double pain, the triple pain. Ten years. It's a short period of my career. Actually, I had to do something.

SPEAKER_01 4:02

You know what? We should be celebrating right about now. It is ten years. This is ten years. We were at Ragbri ten years ago when we met.

SPEAKER_00 4:12

We were well, we didn't officially mate. We had actually met several months before on Zoom calls, but when I said, Do you need a bicycle lock? Yeah, oh God, who invited this guy to to ragbri with us? It's a question every new person asks when they go on these long. Do I need a bicycle lock? Well, now I'm not gonna make fun of the people who choose to use a bicycle lock. I get it. Bicycles mean different things to different

Ten Years Since RAGBRAI

SPEAKER_00 4:46

people. I love my bicycle. If it gets stolen tomorrow, I'll be a little sad, but uh I'll let insurance buy me a new one.

SPEAKER_01 4:56

But I remember, well, I'm gonna I'm gonna go off into the weeds here because what this is a road adventures of cycling matter leisure. I mean, I remember being on the phone asking, like, well, and um what if what if the bikes get stolen? What do what do we do? And you're like, they won't. There are thousands of bicycles, and I'm sure everyone has a nicer bike than you. And I'm like, Well, that's uh you got a lot of damn gall to make fun of my bicycles. Um, and I remember asking, like, well, um, what do we do if there's if there's rain? And you're like, you ride through it. And I'm like, anyways, I asked a lot of silly questions.

SPEAKER_00 5:34

I'm I'm gonna be on novice questions, is what you asked. And that's fine. You you were asking those questions to prepare, and that I think was good as opposed to going, oh, I'll figure it out, but you did well on that first ride.

SPEAKER_01 5:51

Yeah, yeah, we had that was good. We uh uh you'll have to go back and scour through some of the old episodes, and uh you can hear some of our original origins, but that's not why you're here. You're here because the dossier prepared for cycling. I mean, it was even prepared for us. We have highlights, standings, crashes, controversies, anti-doping developments. We've got monster numbers, and we have some cool things to talk about. So set the stage for us. Where where are we at right now?

SPEAKER_00 6:28

Well, I'm in just outside of Kansas City, and you're in Michigan. And I just meant. Uh, we have completed what, 15 stages? 15 stages. 15 stages. This is the second of two rest days that they have throughout the tour, uh, which rest is really kind of uh a loosely used word because none of those athletes are really resting today, but it's a rest day. Uh, tomorrow we will have the only uh individual time trials of the race. So that's gonna be a little bit different format. If you're not, you know, you turn on your TV and you're like, what's going on here? Uh didn't we see this on day one? Nope. We the team time trials were day one. Stage 16 is going to be the uh individual time trials, which uh will be interesting and and may shake some things up, but that's where we're at right now. What do you got?

SPEAKER_01 7:32

Well, you know, um if if you've paid attention uh to our little mini-series at this point, you don't need me to yammer on. So we're gonna lose this page here. Uh, but what we are gonna keep is um let's talk about some spotlight stories because we'd like to.

SPEAKER_00 7:50

Don't worry about it, folks. He'll make up for that page he just threw, trust me.

SPEAKER_01 7:54

Oh, yeah. For sure, for sure, for sure. Um, but we do have some spotlight stories. We got Pagaccha and Cycling Immortality, four wins this tour. Um

Where The Tour Stands Now

SPEAKER_01 8:06

it's lifted him so far, exactly. But that means he has about 25 career tour stage victories. A fifth overall tour would place him alongside some of the best. Um we've got Evan Pool's tour changes overnight. Stage 15 was Evan Pool's first tour road stage victory and his 75th professional win. Um, but we also have Pitcock's Daily Gamble. He's got uh repeated breakaways. Um he's been pushing off vehicles twice, and he's been busted for 20 seconds, which we're gonna get into a little bit later. Um eight mountain points and 30 UCI points, and we're gonna talk about that. But um let's talk about the the one of the biggest pieces that has happened, of course, is the Vindigaard crash. Um, did you see the story that Del Toro says that he crashed on purpose? Um, so he would not crash his own teammate, Pagaccha. Did you see that?

SPEAKER_00 9:12

I did not I did not see that, but um I mean that totally makes sense. You know, he's your team captain, you sacrifice uh, you know, for for that for that purpose. So it makes sense.

SPEAKER_01 9:30

Well um let's talk about some monster facts and figures. I mean, we'll we'll let's let's uh you've mentioned it a few times, but it's about 3,300 kilometers for the total race distance. Now, here's what's just absolutely amazing. Overall, throughout the entire race, there is 30. Mark them 30. I mean, I complain about one, but there are 30 category two and category one and and and HC climbs. Um on stage 11 by itself, the average reported reported road stage record 50.9 kilometers an hour. But here's more interesting. This is something that just blows your mind. On stage 15 before the rest day, with almost 4100 vertical meters of climb, the average speed 42 kilometers an hour. 41.9 to be honest. But I mean, that's the average, and those guys are climbing and climbing and climbing. That's insane. I mean, that's to me, that's just absolutely amazing. Um, but we've got a couple things. There's 31 points separating about Pedersen's green lead over uh Phillipson. Um, but 10 years is the potential anti-doping sample storage. So you know, we we we talked about in the mini-series yesterday. We talked about, you know, how they woke up um Vendegaard at 2 a.m. and Pagacci at 5 a.m. and and now those samples are gonna be they're gonna be stored for ten years. We could be like nine years down the road, and they can be

Spotlight Stories And The Big Crash

SPEAKER_01 11:21

like, oops, guess what we found.

SPEAKER_00 11:25

Well, I mean, let's look back at Lance Armstrong. Your favorite. Yeah. That was seven years. I mean, you know, if you don't keep those samples and you just say, Oh, we're keeping them for this season, and then throwing them out, what happens later if you find out they've been doing something that you didn't exactly, you know, realize, you can go back and test those samples to see if they were doing it back then. Right. So, I mean, it makes sense. Um, you know, I I don't know where they keep these samples. Uh somebody's got a big refrigerator in their garage.

SPEAKER_01 12:02

No, I'm joking. Uh, you want some chocolate milk? Or I don't know. Looks like some samples will come here.

SPEAKER_00 12:10

So UCI is using my uh my garage fridge again to store the samples.

SPEAKER_01 12:19

You know, uh I would assume, all kidding aside, they probably keep them frozen, right?

SPEAKER_00 12:24

I mean I would think uh I'm sure there's some scientific laboratory somewhere that uh just warehouses things like that. And uh I'm sure they rent out a section and it's all very clinically climate controlled uh and available if they decide later on that they need to retest samples or what have you.

SPEAKER_01 12:49

Well, let's talk about samples for a second. Uh besides reading facts and figures off of some data sheets. Let's be realistic here. I understand that there was cheating and and a huge story, obviously. I mean, I I'm not sure, and you've admitted before that you have not listened to a lot of podcasts, but the Lance Armstrong podcast was was amazing, um, of how he got caught and how his teammates lied for him and why they lied for him and and the reasons. And if you ever I I know you're not a fan of him, but if you ever want to hear some of the amazing things that they not amazing, amazing would it sound like that? I'm glorifying it, and I'm not glorifying it, but the interesting things they did to keep it.

SPEAKER_00 13:33

The level of effort that they went through, how about that?

SPEAKER_01 13:36

Thank you, thank you. Because I don't want to be like, oh, it's amazing, you know. But yes, the level of effort they went through. But what about waking up at 2 and 5? I mean, have you thought about that throughout the last couple days? We talked about it, you know, on the on you and I did a little bit of research ahead of time, then we recorded the show, and then of course we edited the show and got it out. But I don't know, I've been thinking about it recently. I mean, I thought about it driving home today, like knowing that we were gonna get together tonight. And I don't know. It seems like don't you think there's a better way in 2026 to to test these guys to see if they're taking performance enhancing pills, thrills, drugs.

SPEAKER_00 14:15

I mean Well, they they they say that they need to have that testing between between those hours because they could be doing something that would be gone by the time the race starts or just before the race. Okay, I'm not a doctor that I'm going to assume is true. I think my concern is A, are you doing this to every single one of these riders throughout the course, waking them up in the middle of the night? Or was this just a random thing where hey, we're gonna wake these guys up? My next question is then to these folks is how do you make the determination who gets woken up at what time? Because me uh don't wake me up at two o'clock, wake me up at five, because that's gonna be closer to the time that I'm gonna get out of bed. Two o'clock is in the middle of the night. To me, that would be more disruptive to my sleep than if you woke me up at five. Honestly, I think whatever time they're getting up, I'm getting I'm guessing they're getting up at six, somewhere in there. I say right when they're scheduled to get out of bed, that's when you go in and pull them for testing. Or 30 minutes before

Monster Speeds And What They Mean

SPEAKER_00 15:36

they're getting up. So you're you're getting close to the end of their sleep cycle, so it's not as disruptive. Because you could say I'm sorry, go ahead.

SPEAKER_01 15:46

I was just gonna say, I you know, you said that the other night, and I kind of like just I was uh more focused on the show and not exactly I should have been more focused on what you were saying, but you do make a good point. I I mean, all things considered, shouldn't everybody be woken up at 2 a.m.

SPEAKER_00 16:03

then? That that's what I'm saying. If you're gonna do it, now I know there's too many people to wake, figure out how to do it and say, you know what, we're waking up this block of people at this time. We can we can you know figure out a way to mass do it. So it's like we can wake up 20 people at this time and they can all take the test at the same time and we can process it. Uh that's the only way I see is fair because then that's why, well, that's still not fair, but that group of people is being woken up at that time. And then the next day at that time, that same group of people. Now you're gonna say, or somebody's gonna say, well, that takes the whole randomness out of it. Well, I I don't see it being super fair that you're waking somebody up at two o'clock in the morning to drug test them, and then you're waking their opponent up at five o'clock. You know, I mean, there's uh I understand the purpose, but it just there's gotta be a more fair way of uh of deciding or figuring that out. I don't know what that is.

SPEAKER_01 17:09

So it says as of July 20th, no positive test or anti-doping violation had been publicly announced from this tour. A targeted test, even one judicially authorized, is not evidence of a positive result. The ITA program, more than 360 pre-tour out of uh competitive tests, approximately 600 samples planned during the race. So, I mean, there they are there are more than um, you know, we're we heard about those two because they happen to be, you know, some of the guys at the top. I imagine some of the guys who are in the mid or the end are probably getting tested, they're just not speaking up or or whatever.

SPEAKER_00 17:48

Um it's uh here's my problem. What happens if they're taking something during the race? What happens if something's put in their food, put in their water bottle? I don't know. Something that's happening in the middle of the race, they could be doping during the race if you're some way to conceal that in food or drink or gels or something that they're taking. You wouldn't be able to, and then if it goes away that quickly, I mean they take it to be towards the beginning of the race, uh, you know, it'd be gone by the end of the so it's just I don't know.

SPEAKER_01 18:34

So they they're saying here that they test every stage winner and the yellow jersey winner, no matter what. Every every test. They're they're they're uh every day. Yeah, they're testing every day.

SPEAKER_00 18:45

So is it always at two o'clock and five o'clock?

SPEAKER_01 18:48

You know. Good good question.

SPEAKER_00 18:52

At 11 o'clock in the evening and six o'clock in the morning, you know, because that's the time frames they can do it in instead of I don't know. It's I don't think there's a good answer to it. It needs to be done. I don't know how to do it without.

SPEAKER_01 19:10

Yeah, I mean, the whole thing is is very interesting. I mean, um, I don't know. I just feel like in my mind that there has to be like some better way of of doing this, but maybe not. I mean, I think the same thing for work for drug test. I mean, it's like we're we've been we've been fighting the oral drug testing uh for years. And what I mean is is currently my employees have to go give urine drops. And yes, there are some companies that use hair drops, you know, hair pulls, but I mean they're looking at oral where you put like

Anti Doping Tests And Sleep Fairness

SPEAKER_01 19:42

the lollipop sucker in your mouth for 10 minutes, and then they can test, you know. It just seems to me that there'd be a better way. I mean, uh, just finishing uh the ITA program in here, it says the athlete biological passport analysis, and then of course the samples are gonna be stored for 10 years. I mean, um, but it's not all of them, it's only selected. And so, I mean, how do you decide who was selected?

SPEAKER_00 20:06

You know, it's like anything else, any rules with any sport, everything is subjective. I mean, you know, from the you know, the officials' point of view and all this other stuff. So, uh, you know, you just gotta I guess say that's the way it is and deal with it.

SPEAKER_01 20:26

All right. Um, I have some other things here. Um, what about Pagacha? I mean, his dominance. Like you keep saying every night, and I'm really appreciating because I'm it's making me pay attention a little bit closer. You keep saying he's gonna be very hard to beat. Is his dominance, in your opinion, good for the sport? Um, like people started to become like, oh yeah, Lance Armstrong again, he's gonna win again, and oh yeah. Um, do you think that his monster hill climbing and everything is good for the sport? Or is it like, oh yeah, go? Or is it like, all right, we get it, you're good.

SPEAKER_00 21:03

No, I I think it's good for the sport. I mean, you always have every once in a while these really great uh athletes come along in any sport and they dominate for a while. Um, cycling's no different. I don't think it I think what really takes away from the tour is when you look at like day four or day five, and some guy's just totally dominating it, and it's like, yeah, he's gonna win unless something horrible happens. Um this has been close. I mean, we're only five minutes separating first from second at this point. Um, it would be hard to do, but we do have individual time trials, and you never know. Um at least keep it close, keeps it exciting. But I don't think that's a bad thing that uh he's dominating right now because I mean it's really hard for these cyclists to come back the next year and be just as dominant because you know they've been in other races, they may have had injuries, they may have had you know crashes, things like that. Um, you know, the teams are always shaking up, so they have different, you know, uh people on the team to help them out. So uh I I think it's good. I mean, you know, everybody likes to to get on there and and cheer for, you know, Tate or you know, cheer for somebody else, you know, Evanpool or whatever. It's like, yeah, let's, you know, start making up the time. Now I think if we're here three years from now and we're talking about, well, he's won the last two, he's leading another one, kind of getting back to the whole Armstrong thing, then it just got a little bit stay. It's like, okay, uh, Armstrong, you know, the the announcers would get on there and go, Yep, uh, Armstrong, and you know, his team's looking awesome. We pretty much assume that he's gonna win unless something happens. So it it did get very Stagnant after seven. But you don't really see that. And there's a reason why he won seven in a row, which we won't talk about now, but yeah.

SPEAKER_01 23:01

It has to go along with that doping, uh, anti-doping. But um uh before I move on to you mentioned time trial, I have something on that. But I know that you're not a fan of him, but I did watch the Armstrong podcast, and he had some guests on, um, and he said that you know how Pagaccha was dominating. And comment that he made, the two guests that were on the show did not comment on. And his comment was something I don't want to I don't want to misquote him, but it was something on the lines of Pagaccia's not done until he gets more than you know a certain number. And the guest was like, What are you talking about? And he's like, he wants a certain number of wins before he before he you know goes on. And he they're like, Well, what are you talking about? He's like, Well, there's a certain someone who got seven, and he's gonna want more than seven in his career, and the two guests didn't say anything.

SPEAKER_00 24:00

And this is why I have a problem with him talking and doing anything about tour stuff, because it's like you didn't get seven. There's not a special number of seven out there because you didn't win seven. Show me on the record books where you won seven. So it's like, no, he's not looking at I don't think anybody's like, oh, I gotta get seven or I gotta get eight to be Armstrong because I don't think any of them are looking at Armstrong, and they're all looking at him and it's like, well, he didn't win any of them, so why would we be concerned with that? That's that's just an ego comment there, as far as I'm concerned.

SPEAKER_01 24:36

You mentioned time trials. Um do you think that Evan Poole uh can build up enough points in the individual time trials to um you know to secure second place before going into the Alps, or do you think uh I think you'll see Evan Poole tomorrow.

SPEAKER_00 24:56

Uh I think you'll see him do very well, and I think you'll see him move closer. And that's gotcha. I know there's a lot of people out there going, no way, he's not gonna I am gonna step out on the limb, the branch, right to the edge, and say, I think Evan Poole will make up some time tomorrow during the individual time trials. And I mean, he's not gonna surpass him, he's not gonna make like three or four minutes, but I think he could make a a minute, minute and a half up on uh on time trials, get him a little closer. And I hope he does, because then if he can grind a minute and a half away, it's gonna make it a little bit more exciting.

SPEAKER_01 25:41

Can I switch gears to the polka dot jersey, sir?

SPEAKER_00 25:44

Take it where you want to go, man.

SPEAKER_01 25:47

Do you think that the polka dot jersey is becoming like I mean,

Is Pogacar Good For Racing

SPEAKER_01 25:52

I know it's king of the mountain. I get that. But do you think it's got like as I'm paying attention more and more and more, it almost seems like second place. I mean, I know we talk about the green jersey, we talk about the white jersey, we talk about the yellow jersey, and the and it's and its notifications and its statuses and its points, but I don't know. It just seems like even the commentators and even like the um footage that I'm watching, it seems like Polka Dottas gets a lot more attention. I was just wondering if you thought that's just my my question. Is it becoming more like a second place prize?

SPEAKER_00 26:27

So are you saying second place in a bad way? No, no, no, no, no, no. Not not derogatory. Um, I was just making sure. I think the reason why there's so much emphasis put on the KOM, the King of the Mountain jersey, is because um uh you know, you've got the sprint sections and stuff, which are exciting, but can you really beat the excitement of King of the Mountain? You know, they're climbing up the Alps, the Pyrenees, these just monstrous mountains, and they're doing it with speed, and sometimes it's raining and all this craziness. I mean, that's just good TV. I mean, it's all good TV, but boy, everybody loves the mountain thing. So I think the the King of the Mountain Jersey uh is a big deal because of the enthusiasm. I mean, just like when you watch the race, you see all the people along the sides in the countryside and along the sides of the route in town. But when you get to the mountains, you know, you've just got people crowding in on the ride, and there's just thousands of people jammed in there, and they barely leave enough room for the cyclist to get down because everybody wants to see these guys, these superstars, just be, you know, climbing up these mountains at crazy speeds. So I think that's that's the deal. I mean, that's the king of the mountain is really, you know, the jazz, so to speak, for a lot of people when they're watching the Tour de France.

SPEAKER_01 27:51

And all that jazz.

unknown 27:54

Jazz.

SPEAKER_01 27:55

I'll tell you what, it was interesting watching some of those guys on both sides, and they're like, they're like cheering on the writers. I mean, at some point I'm watching them like pat them on the back. I'm like, now if a bunch of you guys got together and you push the writer, give up some Swiss francs.

SPEAKER_00 28:12

He's being pushed. I have some I have some real problems about that. It's like, okay, yeah, you I love the fact that cycling and you can get right there next to the people. Um, but I I draw the line and I and I don't approve when people are actually physically, you know, patting them on the back and things like no, no, don't touch the athletes. You know, you're at the zoo, you don't touch the lions and the tigers. You know, it's it's just you shouldn't. I don't I don't like it when they when they physic come to physical contact, even just like you know, patting them on the shoulder and stuff.

SPEAKER_01 28:50

What about the roads? You think they should treat the roads uh to prevent melting if the treatment may affect traction?

SPEAKER_00 28:58

No. I can say that very definitely. Um I think you let the roads be what the roads are. Because when you start putting coatings on the roads, things like these guys have trained on the roads. A lot of times, you know, off season they'll go and they'll ride like a lot, you know, they'll have training camps in Europe and and France and ride a lot of these roads and that type of thing, so they know the road. Um, you know, a lot of times if they, you know, were there a couple weeks ago, they've rode some of these things, and now you've treated it, now you've changed the the environment. It's like putting a new basketball court down, you know, before you play basketball when you haven't had a chance to play it. It changes things slightly, and and I I just don't like it, and I don't think it's fair. I understand what they're saying, but uh unless you're you're can somehow keep that coding six months in advance or something so people can get used to it and stuff, I don't I don't like that idea. Plus, most of the roads that they're gonna train on, even if they're not in France, aren't gonna have that coating on. And you know, cycling is very technical and it's about a lot

Mountains Hype Fans And Road Conditions

SPEAKER_00 30:07

of physics and things like that, and I think you just mess with the wrong things.

unknown 30:11

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 30:12

I'm gonna get a lot of hate mail. I see this coming right now.

SPEAKER_01 30:17

Uh excuse me, uh, Mr. Armando, uh Michael, you know you have his number, so please uh give him your people are gonna be like, man, who is this clown?

SPEAKER_00 30:28

Get rid of him, but hey, it's my own personal beliefs.

SPEAKER_01 30:32

I got two more things for you tonight, and then we can talk about what's coming up next. So um should pushing off a car have more than a 20-second penalty?

SPEAKER_00 30:45

No. And again, I'm very definite on that because it's not just a 20-second penalty. He's paying some Swiss francs, if that's actual real currency. Um, I'm joking. Um because they're all paid all their let me explain, they're paid for all their winnings in Euros, but anytime they're you know have a penalty, they have to pay in Swiss francs. So I joke about that. But um, you know, they're not just out the Swiss francs, and they're not just out the the time penalty. He also lost uh some UCI points and things like that. So it was multifaceted. Uh so I think if you look at the whole package, I I think that's more than enough. Now, if it was just like, oh, you lose, you know, 10 seconds or 20 seconds or 30 seconds off your time, that might be like, well, it's not a big deal. But he's he lost several different things at several different levels, money, uh, time, and then points with his UCI stuff. So I I think that's more than more than enough.

SPEAKER_01 31:49

Last thing I got for you before we talk about what's coming up in uh our final week of of our wonderful mini-series, which by the way, I've really enjoyed, sir. So um so stage nine was shortened by 30 kilometers under the red heat alert. Um, I have two two faceted questions there. In your opinion, yes, for safety, do you think it should have been shortened? Which is question one. And question two is they they push the fans back, and obviously the fans could add or could subtract things. I mean, from you know, if you're coming into the end and you're willing to push harder because the fans are all there. So my two-faceted question is is A, do you think it should have been shortened for safety? And then do you think that they should have restricted the fans?

SPEAKER_00 32:36

Well, there's two things there. Number one, the fan restriction, if I understand or remember correctly, was due to a forest fire that they had going on where they didn't didn't let fans up on the mountain for like 30 kilometers or something like that.

SPEAKER_01 32:50

Um do wildfires.

SPEAKER_00 32:55

Uh, you know, I I think that's perfectly acceptable. I mean, wildfires last the I've fought wildfires down in New Mexico before. Those things, let me tell you, the wind changes a little bit. You get a ton of thousands of people up there. The wind changes. I mean, you could be then having to evacuate thousands of people because the wind shifted and you weren't expecting it. So for safety reasons, I I think that totally understandable. I don't think it really affects the race at all. Uh, it just makes it like the TV viewing, you know, a little less exciting, and the people that were planning on that, I'm sure they're disappointed. Um, what was your other one? Uh the 30 kilometers should it have been shortened. Um I have no problem with that. I I think that is a fair assessment. The temperatures have been extremely high, dehydration's been a problem. Just the overall gruel of the of the tour naturally is tough. I don't have a problem with them uh shortening the race uh for that reason because those temperatures, I mean, you've got to look out, these these people are professional athletes. You've got to look out for their safety. You have to look out for the safety of the people watching, the spectators, and you've got to look out for the safety of the I mean, you've got the the motorcycle guys out there, and they're having to wear their full motorcycle gear in that temperature. So you have to look at everyone's safety here. So I don't think that's a problem. I mean, there's been times, uh, I think it was like three years ago, one of the mountain things, they were getting snow up there, and it

Penalties Heat Alerts And Final Week

SPEAKER_00 34:32

actually this flash flood ice thing happened uh and actually caused them to actually call the race on that day because of this massive ice flow and and water coming off the mountains. So I think for safety reasons, it's it's perfectly acceptable to to do that. I mean, and justified.

SPEAKER_01 34:56

I appreciate that. I've I think we've had some good uh discussion. We we wanted to give like uh where we're at, and you've been paying attention to this mini-series. We appreciate it. We didn't want to give you a day-by-day yammering on, so we wanted to kind of have some some discussion. But what do we got coming up? We got stage 16 through 21. Uh tomorrow is 26 kilometer individual time trials. Um Evan Pool's best chance to secure second. Um stage 18, we're gonna have a summit finish, um, which looks exciting. Stage 19 will be the first. Uh, how'd you pronounce that? Alpha the Hurz? Alpha the Alp. I don't remember. Alpha A-L-P-E-D-H-U-E-Z finish. Alpha. I don't remember. Uh that's all right.

SPEAKER_00 35:46

I had I had it, and then I had it, and now you put me on the spot, and I'm like, uh, oh, Altoaz. Was that it?

SPEAKER_01 35:52

There. I was gonna yes, yes, yes. Okay. Then the second day of that will be stage 20, and then coming into Paris uh and uh on stage 21. So I mean, I would think you were just afraid to mispronounce it because you already are getting a little bit of a little bit of a little bit.

SPEAKER_00 36:07

Oh, I probably already mispronounced it, which yeah, you know, but there you go. Um one thing I did want to add, uh, there was a significant drop out of an individual yesterday. Um Tim Malier dropped from Soudal Quick Step. Uh is a three-time stage winner, climbed off of his bike after becoming completely exhausted in the high mountains. Um he just, I mean, was just to the point of total exhaustion, and and he had to uh to leave the tour. So um, which is surprising. I mean, he's he's a obviously three-time winner. Um that's just telling you how grueling this year's ride is. So unfortunately, we lost him. I mean, we didn't lose him, he left the race. Let's let's not make it sound correct.

SPEAKER_01 37:02

I don't have tabs lined up.

SPEAKER_03 37:04

I mean, yeah, it's not well, uh listen, I appreciate you guys paying attention.

SPEAKER_01 37:14

We will have highlights from tomorrow. We're also working on a regular show. So uh don't worry, we haven't uh we haven't steered away from our original thoughts and and uh and the original roots. Uh but uh I know you've all been sticking around. So without further ado, sir, let me give you your favorite tune. Do it.

SPEAKER_02 37:36

Welcome to the