Mathieu van der Poel's Surprise Season Debut | Omloop & Kuurne Preview | THEMOVE+

I'm definitely gonna put Lansing there. You know there's nobody who has one seven two or no matter what

“Everybody says he's one those races and to do that seven seven times in a row is”

Almost impossible. It's on a spot. It's also one of real championship So yeah, yeah six this time. Yeah, so Bernardino for sure. Yeah, right in there Oh got charged in there You know then just before the generation

But I'll also put all the humble over there. I like that

Everybody welcome back to the move plus I'm Spencer Martin

Here with Yohan Bernal we are doing our weekly show where we go through the news of the week in professional cycling a little bit different episode this week Because we have the opening classics weekend coming up with omloop not omloop head newsblad anymore just omloop newsblad and on Saturday and then current bustle's current on at sunday It's kind of the traditional opening of the it's a real season even though we've actually had some pretty good racing over the last few weeks And then we'll we'll talk about it maybe a few news items, but we're shifting from our off season news breakdown into the

Actually the breaking down of the racing during the season and then on Fridays Starting before shot to be on people go into our like pure race prediction show on Fridays But this week it's a little bit of a hybrid a little bit of prediction a little bit of news a little bit of preview But Yohan what we we thought we were getting a show down between mouthing art and Matthew Vanderpool At omloop tomorrow, but

You called me with some news some devastating news in my family. Well, I've been art was sick and would not be participating So now we have Matthew Vanderpool and is first ever career start at this weekend going up against night up against but perhaps helping us teammate yes for Philipson And then going up against Visma duo of Christophe Report Matthew Brennan Tom Pickock Paul Manny a banyam grmai Arna Deli and then the

“That affinity champion so we're in welcome school from unox, but what are you looking for out of this opening weekend?”

And do you think this is gonna tell us anything about how the classics will play out or is it just kind of a fun prelude into the season?

Yeah, well Spencer mean, you know typically in Belgium and as a Belgium we always say no the season starts with

Omloopit folk which was the all the old name It it folk was the the newspaper which is now a news blood anyway omloop a news blood or a new omloop news blood That's the real start of the season at least it's the real start of the spring classics and you can you can feel it In the media in Belgium, you know the build up towards this race is crazy You know the newspapers are talking about it the whole week big big big portions in the sports sections of the newspapers stock shows on TV

It's really something special in Belgium and Yeah, I mean we had to wait until three days ago, I guess to find out that much you're on the pool was going to race I think that's I mean, he does that's Often right he he just all of a sudden shows up said okay, you know, hey guys tomorrow. I'm racing He did the same thing last year for a grompery some in

“Which he won and now I think on Wednesday you decided that he would he would do”

Omloop news blood I mean it was kind of you know, it was a bit People were speculating it he would do it right and You know he's the big favorite man. I have I have to say I'm still here. I mean, I'm now in Murcia. I went down a bit further Because my son is racing tomorrow in Murcia, but I was I spent the whole week there in on the Costa Blanca and I've met

I've seen him a few times training Wednesday I think was it Tuesday or Tuesday or Wednesday I saw him do really impressive intervals on Valdebo He was going man. He was going so he's ready. He's ready and I think me my opinion and I think

Most of the Palatone will just say okay, you know what we can only win if something special happens Is the big favorite for this race? Especially since you know this race now is not anymore Like it was before where you had to hit his own and then you got a lot longer Zone where situations could be changed that people could come back. This is the old final of the two of

Yeah last year was the same it did come back, but there was no much even a pool in the race. So I just think that

Matthew on the pool is the huge favorites This race becomes harder and harder. It becomes really a mini tour of Lunders except the distance and it's doing okay and not to 50 or to 60 which is a monument But really if everything goes to plan Spencer And there is competition, but I can't see who else could win and not you on the pool

Well, well, we should say so you're just a backup a little bit. Yeah 207k on loop on Saturday

“That's a good way to put it many tour of flangers. It's the old tour of flangers course. I like I think it's really fun”

It's like going back in time. A little harder, Chrome Russell's current on Sunday

Little easier because you have some climbs. You have some cobbles, but the last I'm just looking to 194k and the last real climb is at 134k to go. So it is quite flat for the end says Saturday's the harder race the more Classicky but to your point that Matthew Vanderpool is going to be unstoppable. I would normally agree with you. I would say this is Go hi everyone pack it in, but this is not the last few years. It's not really a race where the the obvious winter wins like go back to 2024. It's like been some pretty good riders. I mean he's he's good, but the thing is

Vanderpool. I don't want us to forget like when he shows up ready to win. He's very hard to stop But he often shows up and does not win. You know, if he's not in race winning mode

“He won't win. It's not on her. I think one of the scenario Spencer is that he goes too early”

and runs out of fuel, which has happened already in the past. But you know the way the way these guys, especially if you look at the two big engines like huge engines is not your one of the pool and and that they Bugachar both on their no specific terrain. You see more and more, they just start to race so early because they want to exclude any uncontrollable. And you know, Matilda doesn't want to be put

in situation where there's majority of another team. So if he starts to go early, then it's basically

it's six or seven guys all by themselves and then it's the strongest guy who wins, right? It's up to the other riders of course to see if they if thought I expect him to go early on one of those whatever climate is, they there's actually a new part now in the course. There's a there's a climb called Aikenberg, which is cobbled. It's quite long and they do that loop twice. So that this race is becoming harder and harder, which is you know more to the advantage

of a rider as on the pool, who by the way also has a very strong team around him. But I expect that he starts very early and that the big guns are there. You know, other riders who should

“be there, in my opinion, co-favorites is a trumpet cock. I think trumpet cock is a big favorite also.”

Know how to race these races but has shown that he's in really good form already, winning that last stage in the middle of the soul was impressive, you know, has done a training camp and also to you already. Visma, of course, is handicapped now with what was fun art falling out with sickness. So that's the big bummer but they still have much of Brennan who I think can step up and, you know, not too much pressure on him. Much of Brennan is probably a rider who would have to

take advantage of a moment of hesitance in the final and that there's a group that come back and he's super fast and sprint. Another rider who I think will be there and this is another step up into his development is Paul Manjek. He is fast but he is also very strong in these kind of classics. And then especially a guy who's not many people have talked about him but I consider him as one of the favorites also, is Tim Wellen's Belgian champion. He's in great shape. He's the leader of UAE

and, you know, whenever there's situations where all eyes are on the other pool, Tim Wellen's could be, you know, the dog who runs away with the dog when the others are fighting for it. Tim Wellen's is a very good pick here. I would not be sure he was a classic guy and I wouldn't really cover it, but just rode away from everybody, stayed away for 50 ishk that the guy is flying right now. I mean, you make a compelling case for Vanderpool. It's hard to imagine anyone beating him. If

very impressive to me. Vanderpool, maybe he parachutes in. My big question with Vanderpool. Why

is he doing this? He's never raised this. He's done. You would say pretty well in the classics.

“I believe no rider ever has ever won on loop in flanders in the same year. Is that correct you on?”

Not sure. Not sure, but listen, I mean, four guys like one with Bovacja. These these statistics are, that's just, that's these statistics of motion. Well, and it's kind of a funny step because there's not really any reason why it's not like, oh, you've peaked too early. These guys can manage their face. I don't know. I think he just got bored of training. Spencer, I met him. I ran into him when he was coming down, called the plop. I was going down, called the rop. They were

coming up with the team. Then another day he was with Freddy Ovet, who's always training with him. And the other guy from Alpsen. I don't know who that was. And then another day on Valdevo. And you know, I guess he said, okay, I'm ready. You know, I just want to start racing.

That's the beauty of being the top leader of that team and basically deciding your own program.

And deciding, okay, you know what, we're not going to announce it. We're not going to plan it, but whenever I feel ready, you know, we all know that he has this private deal with with private jetcoins. I was just going to say that's a beauty of having a private jet. He can just fly up. He says, hey, you know what, I'm racing tomorrow. Bring me to the start. Yeah. A little bit different than back in your day. I'm guessing. Yeah. He did the recal. I saw he did a recal yesterday. So,

he did a recal, he cracked, cracked, cracked on the aftermath, who is still incredibly fit. I mean, yeah, he's world champion, he's world champion, uh, uh, triathlon, no? Okay,

“kind of a lot. And his world champion, you are, you're, I think you're right. He is world champion,”

triathlon. Yeah. That's pretty funny. I forgot about that. He has also a gravel racer and a accomplished gravel racer and his own ride. But I'm glad, I'm glad Vanderpool's doing this because I'm sick of, I'm sick of this waiting around. I mean, we've seen some good performances last week

was incredible. Like, that was very fun to watch at Algarve. We just got to get these big guys out.

They're racing. What are we doing folks? So, it's, it's good Vanderpool's coming in. You make a compelling case that he's going to rip up the bossburg. And it's, I mean, it's still a long way to the finish, though. It's, it's 11 K. Is it 11 K? I'm looking, it looks like it's 12 K. So, I can get a hold of them off. But, I mean, last year, we did have a bunch, it was the same finish. I didn't listen. And we had a bunch of friends. So, it's not an herd of that doesn't break it up,

“as you said. The weather, the weather is also important. I think there's, there are possibilities of rain.”

And I've been told it's pay win in the final. Well, give me a advantage of, you know, it's a huge advantage. Yeah, a huge advantage to Vanderpool. Getting away. Yeah, what about, what about, yes, perfilips? And how's that going to work? What's the dynamic there? Well, I think for Phillips, and this is, I mean, it's a great situation, because at first of all, let's see, we haven't seen anything from the us perfilips, and yet he's not

been present in the sprints where he should have been present in Algarve. So, we don't know how his shape is, but, you know, he tends to go up a level in these harder races and these semi-classics and action and classics, you know, you know, you don't know if you bet down second, you know, he won't lost some rainbow. And for him, it's a great situation, because if he's there, he's probably not going to be there when the tree for big guys are going, but he can, you know,

just sit back and just see if it comes back in the final. And indeed, the team doesn't have to do anything, because normally much, you're just going to be in front. Yeah. And then, if he gets back, he's going to have a lead out guy, but you have on the pool to lead out the sprints. So, I mean, I think it's a great situation for Phillips and that would be my main argument as to how Vanderpool doesn't win as he's leading, he's the lead out man. I think that's his biggest danger

to winning this. Someone asked me this morning, why is this called opening weekend? And my answer was I think it used to be the first race that mattered, used to be the first race to the year, something like that. Is that correct? You need the beginning of the spring classics. You know, the northern European like Belgium, Holland, Northern France, classics.

first big, the first big appointment. You know, that's what you had to be there.

“A little bit different now. I would say even in five or ten years ago, where I know what you're saying.”

It was like the first show up ready, but now guys are showing up to UAE tour, ready to roll. As we saw with Del Toro's power numbers, Algarve, those guys are flying at those races. So it's changed a little bit, but it's the first class. It's the first Belgian classics kickoff. And then the schedule is kind of funky, too, because then you take a break, you go down to Italy, you're at Strada, you're at San Ramo, and then you're back up at the Belgian classics. But

there's actually, let's take a quick, let's take a quick break. And then I want to talk about Visma. I want to talk about the the van art no show and he's not no show and he's sick. But I want to talk about him not being here, what that means for Visma, what they need to get out of the weekend, and then we'll be right back. So let's talk on the other side of the break. Everybody, this episode is brought to you by Rujia. Here's something most doctors know

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can make. So try Gusto today at gustow.com/themove and get three months free when you run your first payroll. That's three months free of three months of free payroll at gustow.com/themove GUSTO.com/themove. Okay, Johan, so you called me yesterday with the bad news. Well, Ben,

it's not racing. I'm going to be honest. I did. I never bought that. He was racing in the first place.

This felt, I just, I didn't have a good reason. I'm just like, is he? It's not that far after his broken ankle and surgery, but apparently he was doing great and he's only missing this due to illness. Yeah, and he'll get over that illness presumably, but that is two disruptions than more than you would want with a classic season this competitive. Am I off-base thinking that? Well, it is an, I mean, it's not going to compromise his, his build-up towards franners and rubes.

But it would have been nice for him to be at the start. I mean, isn't if he had, if it was on his schedule, it's because he thought he was ready. It is still mindblowing to think that, you know, he has this crash in this acropros, had an ankle fracture, had surgery, there's a screw in there. And four or five days later, he was on the home trainer and the week after he was training on the road. By the way, looks, it seems like we're seeing the same thing with Matt Spederson.

You know, if you remember, Matt Spederson, in the first stage of

“Turovalencia, broke his collarbone on one side and his arm on the other side, I think,”

been spotted training in Mallorca already and not just, not just easy coffee rides, like going full gas.

ready to race and he was definitely going to be a factor in the race. Now, the illness,

“it is definitely, you know, the time of the year that people get sick. He did spend a lot of”

time on Sierra Nevada indoor, right, which is also not great, you know, I mean, if you're all the time indoor, there's a lot more flying around that you inhaled and then if you're outside of the time. You know, combine that with maybe a little bit, a little bit empty already, your immune system is with often. Yeah, I mean, I don't know. I don't know what exactly the issue of the illness is. I saw an interview of Fagrisa Nirman who said that, you know, they knew already a few days.

And they waited till the last moment, but they knew already like three or four days ago that

Walt would make it to the start of the, of the armor. Which is a shame, a shame for Walt, you know,

and obviously, okay, it's bad luck. It's not in compared to his crash in the psychopaths

“and the ankle fracture, but there's obviously a trend in Visma that they are having to, you know,”

deal with a lot of, yeah, a negative news, you know, there's nothing they can do about it, but it's clear that they're in a spiral where things don't work out, you know, put on top of that the fact that Visma has announced that, you know, they most likely not going to continue if, you know, if they have the choice. So they're looking for a new sponsor. That's stressful. I know how stressful that is. I've been in that situation. It is, it is crazy stressful.

And then, yeah, I mean, I guess they have some other injured guys also, still,

then, you know, the trainer of Jonas left, you know, very, very surprisingly, Simon Yates retired, you know, out of the blue, a lot of things going on. Yeah, it's one of these things where Wovenar gets sick before on loop by itself. Well, that's not too bad, right? Well, Wovenar breaks his ankle. It's not too bad, right? Simon Yates leaves. That's not too bad. We need a new sponsor. That's not too bad, but you start stacking it up. Yeah, and it's, yeah,

it's just feels like everything is unraveling before the season has even started. And I talked to it, a rival team manager about it. And it was, you know, their opinion that this stuff matters more than you might think, because especially with they're not having a ton of success on the road. So every week, the goes by, everyone is like, let's try to keep the morale up, but they, they are falling, there's no kind of way to say this, they are falling behind on the road,

relative to their rivals already. Yeah, it's there in the, it's just no ball effect that doesn't,

“I mean, the ball doesn't go the right way. It comes back towards them, right?”

So they're in this negative spiral now. I mean, at some point they're going to get out of it, and things are going to start working out, but it is difficult to deal with at the beginning of the season, because already the pressure so high, the start of good, you know, to have these early results that bring some peace and some excitement and, you know, the winning mood, you know, they don't have that yet. And there's a lot of things right now that they have to worry about.

So obviously, Richard Blogger is in a very difficult situation. He has to deal with a lot. But still, you know, it's early and, you know, the good news is, for example, while me Jonas has changed his schedule. He's going to start Kyrenees. If you're not as in good shape, maybe he wins Kyrenees, and you know, everything starts to turn around. It's possible. Yeah, and the other good news is they have Chris Alphoport looks good and Matthew Brennan is

racing this weekend, who is a very, very talented writer. And this, you know, I mean, maybe, maybe this is me just grasping for straws. But in some ways, maybe this is good for Matthew Brennan, because he's now, it's like, it's not working for anybody. Like he's the guy. Matthew, like, he's all the responsibility and some people flourish when they're given that opportunity. Yeah, I mean, he's still young. I'm not necessarily thinking that even if Walt is there,

that it's a bad thing for Matthew Brennan, because he tends to be really good when some of the else has the pressure. And so now the pressure's on him will see you. But anyways, it's the next step in his development. And I have no doubt that he will be in the front, not to Brennan. There's some other writers, Spencer, that I think, you know, not big favorites,

but what if, you know, that there's obviously if other pool is not going to do anything before

“half race, I assume, right? Let's assume that Jonas Abramsson can say that. Yeah, he writes,”

have you seen what this guy have been doing in training quantity and, you know, that the training charge, man, that guy's insane. Yeah, he's still strong. So, you know, Abramsson could be a guy like, he gets in a break and then, you know, steam start chasing him and nobody can catch it. That's nothing. I mean, it's not excluded. Yeah, just to get people like a view of this. This was maybe 10 years ago, a writer in the groupetto at the tour said, mate, I average 350 watts for six hours on a mountain

stage. Just to finish inside the time limit. Now, I'm saying, whoa, that's wild. Abramsson is, is up at altitude at Sierra Nevada in its side on Zwift, doing that daily on Zwift. Like that, that's the type of rides he's putting in. His unbelievable, I saw him out, so pictures on the cobbles. He's looking fit. I don't think this is outside the realm of possibility on that he gets in an early break and makes things difficult for for the Peloton. I mean, we saw like, yeah,

you just, you do see funky stuff. You remember this show? I was at 20, 20,

“to 23, maybe where, these might just blew it up from 100k out. Do you remember that?”

Yeah, yeah. And I think they, these might 122 within our, they want in 23 with Vembal. This is an omelette 24 with young trotnik. So they won three years in a row. I believe. Yeah. So they just didn't win last year. They did win last year. Now we're like, wow, these guys are down and out. Like that is, uh, we are forgetting some domination. They've had, but I will say, we're going back to the Vembal thing. I think, I don't know if that was

necessarily good because they would have these dominant performances in omelette. And then they

would, I just felt like they never recaptured the magical later in the classic season. Yeah. And so

maybe being a little slower or not slower, but coming in a little less hot to this weekend, maybe they can use that to build. I don't know that that would be something to look at. But it is funny. I'm looking at the results. How much recent success these was had and then now we're right them off. But especially that like Vembal, Vembal win, Trotnik, when you could see, you could see Auburns in causing problems for people. Yeah. They kind of clipped off. It was all wild. And then

they clipped off the front near the end and stayed away. You know, I've also wanted to ask you about this. I was on a U.S. Sports like chat platform. And they were about Luka Dunk, Dunkit, who's a Slovenian basketball player and someone proposed the question, like, is Luka,

even the Lucas probably. He's amazing. He's one of the best players in the NBA. But they're like,

it's even the most accomplished athlete from his own country because of Tate Pagotcha and then this cycling conversation broke out in the chat, which surprised me. But then someone said, you know, what, Vembal, probably not even a top 10 writer in the world anymore. I'm thinking like, what, like, he's the only writer that's dropped Tate Pagotcha in the last two years. What are you talking about not a top 10 writer? So, I mean, if you look at the points, if you look at the points,

yeah, I think it's one of me, but, you know, he's slipped quite a bit, but, you know, he also had a lot of, a lot of bad luck to deal with. What do you think of Matthias Vachek for Omlop? Is a writer that to go in between the moves and he's exactly the type of writer that would win Armour. Yeah,

“I think so. I don't remember who's who I like, Spencer, and sometimes it comes out of,”

if he wouldn't come out of nowhere because he's already been good this year, his Sam Watson. Oh, I was just, I had just had him circle. No, I can't say him, but yeah, same well, it's not anything else, I think. Yeah. Yeah, I think I think these are the guys. I'm curious though to see Tom Pitcock. You know, Pitcock is a strange one. You would say, you know, he's kind of transformed more towards, you know, a writer for the edge and stage races, but he can, he can do this,

he can write this and he's motivated. So, and he's actually one of those super super talented writers, like he, you know, he's, he has something special that not a lot of other writers have. You know, you can say, on the pool, Pugachar, even a pool, like the super talent that Pitcock is one of them, you know, he's special. Yeah. So yeah, I could see him rival with Matthew. Well, he, on the valve, well, thing, Pitcock's another writer where his results do not match his, his class. So to say,

you can tell Pugachar is not as good of a descendor as Pitcock. It's like that's true, and also Pitcock might be the best descendor of all time. Like he is, what the things he can do on a bike is, it's unbelievable, mind-boggling. Someone else, I'm curious to watch Fred Wright. It's Pitcock's

“teammate. Now, Penarello Q36.5, I think he was nine that Rubey last year, if I'm like, yeah,”

yeah, but, you know, with all the respect for Fred Wright, you know, he's not in that category of these huge engines. You know, he's a good racer, and he's smart, you know, he's fast, and he can win races, but I think a lot would need to happen and love these bigger engines we need to fail for Fred Wright to have a chance to win. Well, I'm just going to do this. We're going to do some historical reading. These are just the winners between 2013 and 2015. Luca Paulini, Ian Stanner,

Ian Stanner 2021, David Dave Ballerini. I mean, it's not always the big engine that wins this race.

Yeah, it is. Definitely the oddball, it's the oddball classic, which is it, which is why it's fun. I do tend to get to flanners, and if you ask me, gun to my head, who won Omelop, sometimes I couldn't tell you, but it's a fun race, unpredictable race. I'm surprised looking at the start list, it's the first we're going to see from a lot of these riders. It's, yeah, like people coming out of hibernation, even though the season started two months ago, essentially. Do you want to

“take a quick break and then talk about who you like for Carmbassals Kern? I think Omel is probably”

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limited time, our listeners get 20% off their entire order with code the move at Rag and Bone.com. That's 20% off. Rag-Bone.com with promo code the move when they ask you where you heard about them. Please say us to support the show. All right. Let's get back into it. Okay, Yohan. So Colonel Brussels current on Sunday, 195 kilometers. As I said, some climbing, but it stops long before the finish tends to be more of a sprinters race. Like recently won by

Jasper Phillips in it, 2025, Woutven Art in 2024. Woutven Art pretty good at this weekend, huh? He's won. He's won both on loop and current on multiple times or on multiple different occasions. Tays been new, 2023. A little bit of outlier there. And then Fabio, Yohkipsen, Matt's Pedersen, Casper, Ascarin, a little bit of an outlier. Bob Youngville's Dylan Grundevagan. So it's tends to be sprinter or small group stageway. Like I remember Jasper's story even stayed away

on the final circuit in 2016. I like this race because stuff happens at on loop. And then you kind of have to show up the next day if things didn't go your way and try to correct course. Who do you think is going to win on Sunday? Yeah, I think Phillips and his favorite, you know, we have me, Jonathan Milan is racing also. Yeah. No, he's not typically that kind of rider. But I think he's in great shape. I'm going to go for Paul Manjeev, Matt. Yeah, that's my pick.

Paul Manjeev is, we haven't spoken before. And it's funny. We have the same to know. And Paul Manjeev, the thing I'm really interested is he's on fire. Just want two stages at a car. A lot of wins. 26 wins and he is only 21 years old. That's crazy. That's right. He's not

Two of Long G. So that's like not a real world tour or race. Sorry, UCI. He won stage one, two, three,

four, six. I was only one day that he didn't win. He won two of Paul and yeah, I was like the summit finish. Two of Paul and he won a stage in 2025. That's a world tour race. But you wouldn't say the biggest stage. So I'm super interested to see how he's on Sunday. Yeah, he's stepping up. He's, you know, he's maturing and he should be a bit stronger. And also it's kind of the guy that Svall has to go for. This is a leader. Curious to see also this young rider from Blondron, Tom

Krabba, who what he's going to do, he's being up there. And then another guy, I circle here. Not

for anything in particular. But it's strange that he's not doing omelope, but he does

do Kurnan, is Jakob Sutterkrist. I've heard that in Algarve, this guy was impressively strong from within the bunch. I've heard people who race with him and said, wow, something else. There's some power there. So he could, sorry, he could, in theory, get away. Although I think he's been put in the

“team to lead out the sprint for for me long. Otherwise, I'm not, that's what I say. I don't understand”

why he's not racing omelope. Well, and yeah, so for the, it's that's a weird combination. Normally, if you did one, you would do omelope. And then you skip Kurnan. I actually don't, it's a very rare it's like when you do the reverse double play and baseball. This is odd. But I mean, I think the reasoning behind it is, you know, they, they get him in the race. Whatever needs to be done in the final to bring something back, he's going to be there. Yeah. Yeah. And if he doesn't need to bring anything

back, he can do the lead out. I got to say, I'm, I'm not normally that pumped for Kurnan. I'm very excited for this because I want to see lead out. And Kurnan Spencer, it's starting to wrap. It's very different than a lead out in a stage race. Yeah. Well, you're leading out against a bunch of that bodies after a classic like this. It's not, you know, there's not that top speed anymore.

“So, circuit is obviously a great choice to, to be with Milan. I think Milan has his work”

out to be there in the final. Well, I'm just going to say I'm very excited to see Milan sprint against because he looked so good at UA tour. He has his work cut out for him, but this is a man who's podium to get in a welcome, which is a lot of race. So yeah, I think he has a lot of classics potential. He's a very good climber. So I'm curious to see how he does. It's obviously not a straightforward as a six lane highway sprint at UA tour when it's kind of a foregoing conclusion, but I'm really

excited to see how this plays out. Also, someone we've not mentioned, I believe, is Benjamin Gremont. How do you think he's going to do? He should be okay. He should be okay, especially in especially in

“Guuna. I think that's, I think it looks too hard. You know, it's a bit, unless it's kind of”

regroups in the end. It's always a possibility, but for Guuna and Mediam is going to be there,

I think. Yes, I agree. I think Saturday is too hard. Sunday, but man, we just, it's like a little sprint world championship we got here. Some strong sprinters showing up, which of course means it won't be a sprint, but someone's going to stay away. And perhaps Yakuva, that like you mentioned, but any other, I'm trying to think of any other things we've not mentioned about these races. I mean, the big question is, does success at this weekend tell us who is going to be successful later

in the classic season? Do you think there's a correlation there? I'm sure, but it's not the guarantee. You know, it's, I'm just checking the weather here Saturday, Sunday. It's my home town of Ease again, but you know, Guuna is, it's literally 10 kilometers away. It's going to be a real classic weather. It's, you know, 10 degrees, 80% chance of rain and winds around 25 kilometers per hour. Well, actually, then if you look, if I look at the detail, it could be lucky, but it's going to be windy.

So, 25 kilometers per hour, that's, that's, that's windy enough to make it a really hard race.

you're going to be skipping on loop. And you're going to be watching the phone or dash

classic, phone or dash classic. Christian Scaroni, Pennsylvania, for the wind, by the way, facing off against, I, we normally would not talk about this race. This is in France in the or dash region. Face argument, Ben Healy, Matteo, Jorgensen, Matteo Schelmoza, Roman Gregor, Lenny Martinez, Jan Christian, Egan Bernal, or Kurshy, Paul Seychoss. Well, this goes on and on. Pretty interesting startlist area. That's tomorrow. That's tomorrow. Oh, that's an interesting. I know our cup over

flow with, with, with good racing tomorrow. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I don't know if it really matters who

“wins this. I'm just excited to see this play out. Why, it, I think we talked about this. But”

why is Matteo Jorgensen not at the classics? He's saving himself for the, are dens, is that right?

I mean, I guess that's the choice they made, you know, to have him focus more on on the hilly races and the stage races. But Matteo Jorgensen is a rider who would definitely have his name in the list of the favorites we have especially for on loop. Yeah. Especially with no van art. Maybe they wouldn't have done maybe they would have drawn it up to us. Well, that's the thing. You know, that's the thing that I sometimes can't understand Spencer that these teams, you know,

they, in this mask kind of known for that a little bit and at least that's the impression I have from the outside is that they make a plan and they just do not deviate from that plan. They don't improvise based on circumstances and things that happen. But Jorgensen would be the ideal guy to step in here and lead Visma in the opening weekend. Yeah. Yeah. I don't get it. It's a very rigid thinking and then this is, it's just the French version of what we just talked about with on loop

and current up. And then on Sunday we have the drone classic which is just going to be the same riders in a similar region of France racing again, which is fun because you get to get to it the same races. Yeah. My big takeaway from here is I'm very excited to see all these guys race like especially Schummers. But why is Jorgensen not sliding into the classic team for Visma that? Yeah. Yeah. But maybe there's also a mental focus. If you're already decided that that's not going to be

your focus and you're already in the mindset of, okay, I'll do the Hillier races because those two races are hard races. It's not so easy to then all of a sudden shift. Now, by the way, I'm just going to jump in and do a little bit for a little bit new spot. You know, it's easy to say why don't they do it, but there's more to it than than just saying, okay, I'll just just change my schedule.

“But I think you should be able to do that. You know, you have to be able to adapt.”

Yeah. I mean, that's a very reasonable, a reasonable take. It is harder and real life than it is just sitting here saying stuff. But you're going to undermine our entire show. If you keep pointing that out, doing things in real life is harder than this, with someone we've not mentioned, I believe, is Arnold Deli. How do you think he's going to do this weekend? And then I have a question for you about recent comments he made. I think he's going to be good Spencer. The thing is, you know,

we're not in a position to predict because we haven't seen anything special from him. But he's definitely a rider. Listen, he has the power. If he's healthy, I assume he's fit enough to race, but I mean, he did all Garver, right? So we didn't really see,

“he did all Garver. Yeah, I think. Yeah. And he's like, he got fit on stage. One is like,”

fine. But yeah. But did you see these comments from him? So he had an injury also. He comes back from an injury. He was, he had to postpone his training quite a bit. I'm not sure now, if it was a knee injury, I think it was a knee injury, like a ligament injury. So he's probably a bit behind what which comments. So he's skipping San Ramo, because he says he cannot compete with Vanderpool and Pagachar. I would not have advised him

to do this interview because as you say, maybe he's injured, and this is the right thing to do. I don't want my leader saying that. I want the like Tom Pickock shows up and Tom Pickock thinks he can win against this guy. Even if he can't, different mentalities. The Pickock, you know,

Pickock, when he starts, he always thinks he can win. And you know, that's the kind of

I don't dislike the fact that listen, he can't win. He can't win. I don't know about that. San Ramo, San Ramo is the weirdest race of the year. You don't know what's going to happen at San Ramo. But these guys there, and they destroy everything, he's going to be dropped on that you press on and he's not going to come back. I don't believe. Is that because of the injury or he's just not strong enough to do it? No, he's not not good enough climate. But he's he is good as

Caleb Ewing. Caleb Ewing made it over the podium? Yeah. Okay. How many years ago was that long ago?

And you're like me. You're ready to leave history in the dust. Hold on a second. So

Milan San Ramo, let's look at this podium. So this was as recently as, I mean, you are right, the sports changed. So you and got second in 2021. Michael Matthews, damn near one the thing in 2021. Yeah, as for Philips and one, I guess it's Philips and a better climber than Arnold Deli. I think he's more of a, I would say, you know, it's 200, it's 300k. I'm not sorry, Emil. It's different, you know. Yeah.

Yeah, no, I can't see. I know Deli make it over the Chipresa if

“we got Chago's crazy there. And he's gonna go crazy. He knows that that's what he needs to do”

to have a chance to win. He needs to go faster and faster of the Chipresa.

What? There's no chance that Deli can stay there. But what happens when I love how we're just now doing outcomes for San Ramo? What happens? Let's say Pogatra goes all out of the Chipresa. What does he do when he gets to the other side of it? Does he ride the valley by himself? Well, yeah, I mean, it's a good point. We've talked about it already. You know, it all depends what the other teams, if they, if they freak out and they're all over the place,

or if they gather and, you know, they pause and get organized. They're going to get him back. They're going to get Pogatra back. Yeah. The thing is that usually when Pogatra goes, it's fun to pull and a bit cock maybe in Ghana, who are there? Nobody else is there. So these guys are not going to sit on. They're going to collaborate. Do you think so?

“Yeah, I think so. Yeah, I mean, man, if I'm Pogatra, yeah, that's why San Ramo, I think,”

is turning to the best race to the air because yeah, do you collaborate and then you, and then you have to drop Vanderpool on the Pogio? Well, Spencer, I mean, I think you saw the image is also on social media, Pogatra training on the Pogio behind a motorbike, flying up that thing, you know, like the guy who took the video, he was, I mean, he had almost no time to get it. It looks like a car or if that's how fast it's going on. So we know he's taking it seriously, very seriously.

And on the other hand, I mean, I saw Ramo is also a race where a lot of things can happen. You know, so we'll see. But anyways, that's still still far out. Let's let's get through the opening.

We can, the first in the Belgium and then we'll see what we're, I mean, then next week,

Strava Bianca, first place of Pogatra, I'm going to be there, by the way, in person with a group of clients who asked me to organize a trip. So what's going to be fun? And I'm raised,

“riding the Gromfondo on Sunday, uh, the Strava Bianca Gromfondo. Tell a long how far is that?”

It's 138 kilometers, uh, 2000 meters of elevation and lots of gravel. 100. And yeah, so a lot of gravel, what, like what tires are you running? What's your strategy that I'm not riding a gravel tire, gravel bike? I'm not just, I mean, I'm, I'm, I'm, I know, so I'm riding a gravel bike with real tires. Interesting. What? And you're just, if you, you don't want to ride the gravel tires because you think it's going to be too slow on the paved climbs. Spencer, at my age, I need every single

advantage. I can get it over there. The ride is plenty of people in the Gromfondo is going to ride gravel bikes and it's perfect to find. But I just need a little bit more speed on the, on the non gravel sections. I just, funny, I, I am of the mine that I am so much faster in the gravel sections than the gravel bike. I usually would rather take the hit. But I was riding a gravel bike during the, uh, like the Tour de France last year when I was staying on a mountain top and

a ski resort and we're doing the show in a valley. And I would just ride home every day on the gravel tires. And I switched halfway through the tour. So I can't do this anymore. And I'd have put the road tires on. So I know what you mean. Sometimes you just, you need a little extra speed.

the gravel sections and, and it's not real gravel. You know, it's fine. Yeah. It's a lot that's,

it's a lot more. When you could perfectly do it with the road tires, that's not a problem. And this is just next weekend, is it? Is that right? Well, week from Saturday. And then that's forgot. Sure. It started the season. It's forgot. Yeah. Del Toro, pig cock. Man, aren't hopefully been healing. So I'm pumped for that. Here's that before we go, here is, uh, not really a question, just suggestion of the week. So, uh, people probably saw

Apple, but, but the Lance Armstrong movie with starring Austin Butler, who's going to play everybody

else as the question? Someone wrote in and saying, just de-aged Liam Neeson with AI and he plays a

“young Johan Bernal. I think that could be. That could be it right there. I have no idea, Spencer.”

I have no idea who Liam Neeson is. Oh, yeah, yeah, I know. Oh, you know, who's, yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, he's also Irish. I, that could be, there's some hurdles there that maybe would be too hard to overcome. Oh, the Irish. I mean, I, I went out with the, you know, one of the greatest of all times, these Irish Sean Kelly. Sean Kelly. I wrote it again with him this week and last week and then this week and yeah, he's very nice and a group of Irish cycloturists. You know,

there's only a few Irish, uh, you know, how we call them, like, uh, David Walsh and Paul Kymich, those two. I don't like these people, but they might meet me there. So, look at it. So common, uh, I, I did grow up and you know, Ireland was a huge cycling country because the Sean Kelly, Stephen Roach, all the journalists are Irish, it was like,

“what, what happened there? How did these cluster of people get so into cycling from Ireland?”

Someone was asking me, they wanted, they wanted to do a list, 100 best cyclists of all time. And harder than you think, they were starting with the top 10. Who would you put on your top 10, your top 10 cyclists of all time list? Obviously, you'd start with that emerge. I mean, Sean Kelly is, you know, in the BCF BCS right ranking, he's number two. I'm definitely going to put Lanson there, you know, there's

nobody who has one, seven doors, no matter what everybody says, he's one of those races, and to do that seven that seven times in a row is almost impossible. It's on a spot. It's on someone with championship. Yeah, six. So, they're not, you know, for sure, yeah, in there, boogachars in there, you know, then just before the generation, boogachars, I'll also put Alejandro Valverde in there. Oh, I like that. For sure, for sure. And then,

oh, then yeah, you start to get to some tough decisions, because you have he know,

“and then would you, who else would you do from that era of stage racers or rip right before?”

Well, I mean, you know, what I also want to put in there is from Jessica Moser, Moser. Who's actually, who was actually missed him. I missed him. I would have loved to have a coffee with him. He was, he was also riding here in, I'm a Costa Blanca with a group of Italian business people. In prosikings, that's ranking third of all time, by the way, early marks, Sean Kelly from Jessica Moser, if you look at his palm Mars, it's pretty impressive. You know, three times Rubei,

one the zero world champion. I mean, you name it, you know, he was, he was incredible. World

hour record holder. Yeah, legends, legends. He's like, he looks like he's like an impressive athlete too, just when he's looking at him. You don't see a lot of cycles like that. What about like a junk on a teal? Yeah, obviously, I mean, I, you know, it's before I have no recollection of him. I know. He said it's hard when he was, he was, he had junk on the teal. He had falls to copy if these guys are legends, you know? Yep. And then we got one more. What about, what, here's the

big question. The thing I could not figure out, what do you do with Chris Froome? So he has seven grand tour wins. That's a lot. Yeah. It's fifth of all time. You guys, what, four tours, four tours do well to us in one zero. And then that's all impressive. Almost no one day success to speak of.

by the way? I mean, that's, it's all retired. I mean, no, I mean, the thing, he's obviously retired.

“But I, I can not understand why he didn't make an announcement. That's like, I think he's looking”

for a ride. Sorry. I think he's looking for a ride on a team. I don't think so. I don't think so. That's it. I'd say if this is it, it's one of the weirdest retirements I've ever seen. Yeah. I mean, I have no information, but, you know, I mean, his, his, Paul Maris is impressive. You know, and we all know what changed, you know, after that accident in

Dolphin A, it, it, it was, you know, came over basically. Never, he could never come back from that,

you know, and it's understandable. But it's, it's, I struggled to, you know, like, why has he not made an announcement? I don't, I don't, I don't, I think he can, I don't think he's ready for the closure. I think so too. I think he, I think he still likes it so much that he doesn't want to, with, but, yeah, I mean, I'm just, yeah, just came up now, but I don't, I don't know what's happening there.

“What do you do with someone like Roger DeVlamic, 11 monument wins? Oh, yeah, yeah, Roger's probably”

would be. Hey, here, this is what's happening with Roger? I mean, what I find really sad, you know, I mean, obviously, I see Roger race as a kid, you know, he was always there, you know, he was super unfortunate to have had a demerx crosses path. But many times he was the only guy who could follow a demerx, and he was an incredible, incredible racer. More a one day racer than anything else,

although he did win Tideanu Adriatico, and he did win two of Switzerland, but, you know, never

want to grant to work, or was never close to winning a grant to work. But man, lately, his interviews man in Belgium, it's something else. It is so sad to see, I don't know, I don't know why they, nobody protects Roger from, from giving interviews. I mean, obviously, some of the media they jump on it because they know Roger's going to say stuff. I know, it makes noise, but it's sad to see like, you know, I would have loved to race against Pugachar. I would have beaten him, you know,

he would, he would never have been able to drop me, and he, I would have beaten him in the sprint or then criticizing one of the pool, saying, yeah, from the pool is not the greatest cycling of all, the cycle cross guy of all times, my brother was, because the competition, the competition was nothing back in the days. You know, it was, it's not much useful that he's so much above everybody else. Listen, much of under a pool is definitely by far the best cycle cross rider

of all time, plus a bunch of other disciplines where he's the best. It's not even close. Also, if you, if you just look at the peer numbers, this is going to be controversial. No other writer and history has had as much cobbled success as he's had with his few starts, if that makes sense. Like it's even close. Yeah. Oh, it's unique, but then, you know, I mean, I'm coming back to those interviews of Roger DeVlamin, you know, and I respect Roger as, I mean, he's an incredible,

he was an incredible champion. But man, it's sad to see that in his old age, he goes off like this.

It's always negative. There's never anything constructive or positive or, you know, he can't

admire nowadays cyclists. He needs to criticize them all the time. And, you know, if it's once in a while, it's okay, but, you know, all the time, it's Roger stopped giving interviews piece, or somebody around Roger DeVlamin stopped giving interviews because it's not, it's not funny anymore. It's kind of common in the US. You see a lot of, like, the former generation is nothing positive to say about, like, every NBA player that's retired is just saying that's type of stuff.

It's no much more difficult now to be at the top in cycling than back in Roger's days. And he was a great champion, but the competition is 10 times bigger now with this than back in his day. Well, and the obvious hole in his argument is, so you would just sit on Pagachar's wheel and not get dropped. What happened at the 1975 zero? There was three riders of that race that are fact that were faster than Pagachar is now. Like, when you hold their wheels and drop them.

“Like, he was not a stage racer. You know, I mean, that's why he was, yeah, I was so much better.”

I was so much better. No, you were not. You never want to ground to. You're never been not a podium in a round to it. You were great, the cyclist, but you were not the greatest, you know, and you just kept it. That's it. You know, it'd be happy and proud of what you did, but just, you know, move all that. I know, but to end us on a more positive note, this blew my mind. So,

monument wins of all time. Eddie Merck's number one, Roger Devline at number two. Do you know

who number three is on this list? This is the most monument wins ever. How many does Roger have? 11. 11.

“And then it's going to be much, much, much, much, much of on the pool. Or pagachar, no?”

Today, pagachar. Third all time. Yeah. Unbelievable. He's 27 years old. Yeah. It's unbelievable.

Vanderpool actually two behind him, pagachar's winning monuments at such a rate. We forgot. They

“weren't tied. Like, they, they were tied. Like, I, I just last time I checked. What happened?”

So, man, that is unbelievable. Yeah, Vanderpool's not, he's 8th of all time. Okay. And he's not been,

he's been racing monuments for what four years or whatever. Then he started in 2021.

“Who? Are they Vanderpool? Oh. I think the first monument he did was that”

flander is where he, remember he was like on the sidewalk and then he crossed and then finished four. Yeah, and that wasn't that long ago. And that belief, I think that's his worst, cobbled result ever, is that fourth place, which is unbelievable. Yeah. Good, good writer, Matthew Vanderpool probably will win on Saturday. And that's, and that's our pick, and that's our show. Anything else to add you on? That's it. Let's see tomorrow. What happens? All right. Well,

I'm excited for the kickoff of the year. And then, they were into it. You'll be at Strada. We'll be doing our show right after that. And then we're, they were into Saint Reino. But great talk can do, and we will talk on Monday. It's our podcast. Thank you, Spencer. Bye.