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
Can A Yellow Jersey Survive Without A Team
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A single late attack can win a Tour de France stage, but a wave of illness can threaten an entire campaign. After an Alpine Stage 18 packed with climbing and chaos, we break down how Richard Carapaz nailed the timing on the final climb, cracked the day wide open, and rode away to a statement win. We also talk through why the GC group looked unusually conservative, and what it means when the top contenders choose patience over panic with only a few days left.
Then the conversation shifts to the real drama brewing inside UAE Team Emirates. We unpack the stomach and flu-like issues affecting key riders, including Brandon McNulty’s difficult day and eventual abandon, plus Tim Wellens fighting just to stay inside the time limit. That becomes the perfect launching point to explain Tour de France team tactics in plain language: why domestiques matter, how leaders get protected, and what a “strong rider on paper” loses when the support network starts disappearing.
We wrap by looking ahead to Stage 19 and the legendary Alpe d’Huez: a shorter, more explosive day where attacks can fly and pacing mistakes get punished in every hairpin. We also clarify the OTL outside the time limit rule and how officials can apply discretion when the race turns brutal. Subscribe, share this with a cycling fan, and leave a review if you’re enjoying the daily breakdowns. What’s your call for Alpe d’Huez: bold long-range move or controlled GC defense?
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.
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It's a Great Day for a Bike Ride!
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All right. Well, welcome back to the Cycling Men of Leisure's Leisure Breakaway. It's our mini podcast about what's going on at the Tour de France, stage by stage. Today, the Alps delivered another unforgettable showdown. Fantastic showdown, I will say. There's a little bit of illness. There's a lot of mountains. And uh the next couple days are going to be a real uh bit of excitement. So to break it all down, I am Michael, and with me as always is my good friend Adam.
SPEAKER_01Good
Welcome Back And Alps Hype
SPEAKER_01evening. Happy to be here, sir. Happy to have you. Uh good race today. Well, uh, is that a question?
SPEAKER_00Or I was just saying good race today.
SPEAKER_01Oh, yeah. Every day is a good day for a bike race. I mean, there I was. Uh uh, I was at stage 18 and I was enjoying no, I'm just kidding. Interesting stuff going on. A little bit, uh, a little bit of twist. If you would have asked me uh when we first decided to do this, I I don't think I would have uh been able to speculate uh some of the stuff. We'll get into it, but I don't want to spoil your thunder.
SPEAKER_00All right, today's stage, stage number 18. Uh the distance, 185.2 kilometers. For us Americans, that's 115.1 miles. Elevation gain was 4,550 meters, which is 14,930 feet. The big winner today, Richard Carapaz with EF Education. Winning time, 4 minutes 26 seconds, or excuse me, 4 hours. 4 minutes, that would have been incredible. Uh 4 hours, 26 minutes, and 21 seconds. He maintained an average speed of 41.7 kilometers, which is 25.9 miles per hour. That is impressive.
Stage 18 Stats And Winner
SPEAKER_00But a couple crazy things. Let me tell you, Kerapaz timed his attack perfectly today. He launched at about 3.5 kilometers out on the final climb, quickly opened this huge decisive gap, um, taking his ninth grand tour stage victory. Uh, Toddy, he just played defense today. Um, there was some speculation that, you know, uh he had been launching attacks on these big mountains that he might do that. No, he just uh played defense today and preserved his overall advantage. He is uh four minutes and thirty-two seconds over Remco with only three stages remaining. And uh Mads Petterson grabbed the maximum points at the intermediate sprint, which extends his lead uh with the green jersey. And uh team UAE, they uh they've got some problems going on. We saw yesterday with with Adam Yates, was in the back most of the time, which is not Adam Yates' general position. Um he had some illness. It was mentioned that a couple of uh other people had some illnesses. Um I will let you uh talk about that, but that could shake things up just a little bit. So that that is stage 18 in a brief uh you know, two-minute clip. What do you got?
SPEAKER_01Uh let's see here. Um the I got a breakaway that formed. Um the fight to escape lasted approximately 65 kilometers. About 40 riders eventually separated from the Peloton, including the Stage Hunters. Um the original breakaway split and reformed since we learned about breakaways last night. Um I listened to the show this morning for for quality and clarity. Yeah, I butchered about 95% of everyone's name, so I do apologize. So it was actually closer to 97.5, but I think who's paying attention to that?
Breakaway Chaos And Stage Hunters
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean uh 220, 221, whatever it takes. So it takes uh let's see here. We've got the six riders, six objectives. Uh each writer had a different reason for being there. Um car pause one at the stage and the mountain points, but uh we've got we've got um Schmidt was looking for another stage success, but like you said, uh obviously that wasn't the case. But we do have an illness, as you have alluded to, sir.
SPEAKER_00Now yeah, it sounds like it's a pretty big deal. I think it's bigger than what they're letting on.
SPEAKER_01Well, uh, yes. I mean, here we have the most significant drama unfolded at the opposite end of the race. You know, when a story leads with the opposite end of the race and people being sick, I was very cautious to read it. I mean, so uh Adam Yates had suffered from stomach problems during stage 17, and and yesterday you mentioned that he had lost almost 26 minutes, but he did complete yesterday. He appeared to be recovering. Two more UAE writers were now struggling. American climber Brandon McNulti, which
UAE Illness And McNulty Abandons
SPEAKER_01by the way, was in a uh road rage incident. Do you think anything had to do with him getting sick getting in the road rage incident?
SPEAKER_00I I think these are un un uh unrelated incidents.
SPEAKER_01Okay, fine. Uh he developed uh illness symptoms, including a sore throat. Ah, yes. I guess you don't get a sore throat from road rage now, do you? But uh it's really hard. He was dropped after about 25 kilometers and spent much of the day stage riding alone near the broom wagon. Um at one point he was approximately 25 minutes behind the Peloton, and he eventually abandoned during the final 50 kilometers. Um before I go any further, um you know, understanding that yes, Tour de France is one winner, so to speak, or I guess for the yellow jersey winner, the green jersey could be a winner, but you know, King of the Mountain could be a winner. But um tell me about overall winner, yeah. Tell me about how important teammates are. I mean, they they work off each other. And so before I butcher this, I have to, and I have some some verbiage here, don't get me wrong. It says, you know, uh, and I'll just give you a little teaser. Pogaccia is is definitely um very, very frustrated and and concerned. But before I read this, from a guy who follows and sounds like he've been following for a long time, how important is the team members going back and forth?
SPEAKER_00Well, you have to understand that the Tour de France is not just about individuals, that these teams are built around a captain. Um, presumably that is the best person on the team or
Why Teammates Decide The Tour
SPEAKER_00the the person that the uh team managers feel are going to be able to win, uh, ultimately win uh the overall ride. And so all of the other team members are really working for the ultimate success of the team by putting their team leader up there on the podium uh to get the overall win. So teams are extremely important, and I think you'll see it, especially like on mountains, uh, when they're doing sprintings, you always hear the the guys talk about the leadout men. Um you'll always see the general classification guys will always have a whole, you know, two or three guys uh around them to help you know lead them out, to help pull them uh to a position where they can then jump out and uh take the victory or you know, take the uh the points, what what have you. So teams are extremely important uh on these on these type of races. So um, you know, Brandon McNulty abandoning, obviously, if he's 25 minutes back, they realized he was not gonna make the time, you know, that the time that he needed and would have been disqualified at the line anyway, so there's no point in in pushing that. Um there's a couple of other people that uh apparently on the UAE team are not up to snuff. Um that's gonna hurt, or I should say, that generally hurts the team a great deal because you don't have your leadout people, your people to help pull, your, you know, the people, even uh, you know, you don't have the support that you would generally have of people going back and getting water bottles and that kind of stuff and bringing them up to your leaders. Um, but we are talking about uh Toddy, and Toddy has shown on more than one occasion that he can go back and get water bottles for himself and the team, and he's done that, even as a team leader. Um, he's gone back and done that. So I I don't think it's gonna have a huge effect on the team unless Toddy gets sick. Now, if he gets sick, um that could shake this whole thing up. Like I said yesterday, I think he the only way that he's not gonna get uh the jersey at the end is if something catastrophic happens. And I said the only way that Remco could really have a chance is he had to take at least 45 seconds off of his deficit today, which he did not do. So I I think Toddy's got it, unless illness, I think illness could take out a big chunk of his team and Toddy could still do it. But if illness hits him, then we're gonna be, you know, the next day or two we'll be talking about a different race.
SPEAKER_01So now I'll get back to the story. I appreciate that, I really do, because it says that major loss for Pagatcha. McNotley would uh would ordinarily be one of his strongest climbers helping during the two Alp stages. Um Tim Wellens was also suffering. He became detached early and spent much of the day fighting uh simply to just remain in the tour. Wellness Wellens reached a finished 43 minutes and two seconds behind uh Carpaz, only two minutes and fifteen seconds inside the time limit, as you mentioned. Afterwards, an exhausted uh Wellens said that as almost uh any other race he would have just stopped. But of course, because it was the Tour de France, he he decided to continue. Um so and it says, why didn't Pagat's rivals attack um under the obvious difficulties? The leading overall contenders remained together. Their group reached the uh uh finish four minutes and thirty-five seconds behind Carpaws and Evanpool, Pitcock, you know. Um the conservative explanation on stage 18 was merely an appetizer. Uh two much harder stages uh remained, and nobody wanted to waste energy uh just to try to maybe gain time they wouldn't be able to gain. So that was kind of interesting strategy. So um but uh definitely definitely learning a lot myself. Um, but it's very interesting. So um yeah, I mean nothing worse than I mean, not that you and I have ever done the Tour de France or anything considering that, but I mean we have had days in the saddle where we just didn't feel good. I remember during the Ragbry 50 when I think it was ninety-eight degrees and the tarmac was probably 198 degrees. I all I remember is the one day you and I knew we were in trouble. I think it was the night of the storm, um, that unfortunately um Cedar Falls or whatever. Uh can't think of right now, but right away. Uh that day
Heat Exhaustion Memories On The Bike
SPEAKER_01was just absolute miserable. And we knew that we weren't doing good, but we also didn't have the energy to continue, and so finally we rested for about 15 minutes and finally said, let's we're gonna we're gonna become roadkiller.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, that was a day that I it was so hot and I we were trying to hydrate, and I know it was especially bad for me. Uh, there was no shade, and we got to that one stop, and there was like no shade. There was a white fence, and I remember I was in really bad shape, and I just went up to that fence off the side of the road. It was like a plastic rail fence, and I just hooked my arm around it to keep from sliding down into the ditch, and I just sat there and there was no shade, but I was just like, oh my god. I you know, I think I was actually on the verge of of you know heat exhaustion, but uh and then that big trailer full of really cold water key showed up, and and that certainly helped.
SPEAKER_01For sure, for sure, perfect timing for sure. But yeah, I mean I can imagine uh these guys. Well, I actually I I really can't imagine. I'm just trying to sympathize. I'm I mean, you're not feeling good, and then since the learning more and more about the team. So uh every night I've asked you uh right here and from this same seat, or or therefore your seat wherever you have been across this great nation, uh you said short of anything happening, you felt that that Pagaccia would be able to uh continue. Um if he doesn't get sick with the four minute and thirty-two seconds, uh since he normally is a climber, I I I I would agree with you, but of course if illness takes him down, it could be anyone's game, right?
SPEAKER_00So Yeah. I I like I said, I I don't think there's any way at this point uh Rimco can can do that with just three days left, uh even with his team having sickness and stuff. I unless he gets a sickness, uh, he's he's pretty much got it. In fact, I think the jerseys are pretty much solidified uh as they stand, unless something major happens. But you never know. Uh we've got three days, and tomorrow is uh yeah, 127.9 kilometers, 79.5 miles. Now, this is the shortest stage. It is expected to be one of the most explosives, but we have to remember what we've got on the stage. We have the uh the Alp Duez, which is a legendary, awesome hill. It's great to watch, but it is brutal. Uh, I think I mentioned yesterday it's got 21 hairpin turns on it. Um, so it is going to uh it's gonna be a great day, and you never you never know. You never
Stage 19 Preview And Alpe D’Huez
SPEAKER_00know.
SPEAKER_01Well, uh tomorrow, stage 19. Um we're coming, we're coming down to the end. Uh tell us what we got up for stage 19.
SPEAKER_00Well, I think I just kind of did that. Um I think I think the biggest thing is is the Alp Duez. Uh we'll we'll see. I mean it it's a high mountain summit finish. And uh it's you know, I think we've got three days left. So I mean you it you've got some teams out there that really haven't made a showing. Um you've got some people out there who wanted to do better. Um so we'll I think we'll see a lot of uh explosive uh attacks, maybe some breakout action. Um, but I you know I don't I don't think that's anything's really gonna shake up where we're at team standings or or jersey standings.
SPEAKER_01Well um I'm uh looking forward to it. I'm I'm hoping I don't know. I guess I guess I'm now team Pagaccha. I I want him uh I want him to be able to finish. I maybe that's just uh the you know the underdog he's definitely an underdog, but maybe just like the going with the flow, but um, you know, just I don't know. I guess I I want him to take it.
SPEAKER_00Oh, now you're gonna go with him now that there's only three days left and it's uh you know it's near the end and you're probably gonna win. You'll you'll decide to throw your hat in with him.
SPEAKER_01I mean, come on. Two years ago.
Late Tour Fandom And Friendly Trash Talk
SPEAKER_01Two years ago, I I I wouldn't have even cared about uh uh you know the whole tour. I would have been like, oh great, yeah, they're in France. So uh at least I'm paying attention now.
SPEAKER_00You are paying attention. I remember back in the day when you didn't pay any attention to it, and I'd be like, oh yeah, the tour, woo, and you'd be like, uh, can can we watch some uh some murder show or something, uh Who Done It type thing, or you know, forensic files or something like that. So good job though.
SPEAKER_01Well, um I wanted to talk about the ousted time limit. Uh I was searching for that. That's why full transparency, you know I'm a transparent person. When when I said tell us what we got in stage 18, and you said I did that, that's because I was searching for you always say that they'd be out because you didn't have enough time, and and uh I wanted to know what that was called, and it's outside the time limit. The rider who takes longer than the permitted time is listed as OTL and is normally eliminated from the race. The time limit varies by stage difficulty, and the winner's average speed. Officials can sometimes allow affected riders to continue, especially when a large group misses the cut. That's interesting. So the officials get to control that, huh?
Outside The Time Limit Explained
SPEAKER_00Commissars, absolutely, they uh they're always looking at what is best for the race. And um, they will take it's subjective, obviously, and they will take in consideration of what's going on and the the weather and and uh you know how many people don't hit the cutoff. So it's a very fluid type thing, but uh it's really designed to really improve and keep the race very competitive. So perfect.
SPEAKER_01Perfect. Well, with that, uh I look forward to being with you tomorrow, sir, and uh I'll give everybody what they've been waiting for.
SPEAKER_04Welcome to the
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