breaking summer records and dreaming builds

all 3 tour divide records broken with record breaking heat, REI-AI, choosing an alt saddle, Arya's riding more and dreaming about builds, and finally, its le tour time!

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Okay, Nando. Are you ready? Yep. Reporting live from the beating heart of Nutmeg Country.

SPEAKER_04 0:10

Cable actuated and assimilated. This is all live now. Alternative radio.

SPEAKER_00 0:19

Alternative. I'm Bonnie Roman.

SPEAKER_04 0:23

I'm Aria Summertime.

SPEAKER_00 0:27

It was last week too, though, wasn't it? Aria second week of summertime. How's that? It's that's your that's your Christian name.

SPEAKER_04 0:35

Oh my god, I don't have a Christian name. I am a Buddhist.

SPEAKER_00 0:40

Oh a Buddhist never. Okay, come on, Nat. Well come on. That's gonna be the catchphrase of the next month plus. Um let me. Well, folks, thanks for joining us here on this beautiful late June morning, the last day of June here in Nutmeg Country.

SPEAKER_04 1:08

I'm Arya Summer because this week is gonna be really hot.

SPEAKER_00 1:12

And we're having time to get in that European heat wave.

SPEAKER_04 1:15

Yeah, yeah. Comes to us always a little too late, doesn't it, Jamie? But here we are. Thank you for joining us again for another installment. We have some thinking to do because we've gotten some more supporters. Jamie, you want to talk about what we're at per month?

SPEAKER_00 1:35

$133 a month.

SPEAKER_04 1:37

That's right. Wow. Up to that, which is nuts.

SPEAKER_00 1:42

So many ice creams. But let's fit, you know. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:45

So we've got Hannah and Owen.

SPEAKER_00 1:47

People must be really trying to fatten us up. That's must be what this is all about.

SPEAKER_04 1:51

I mean, it is ice cream season. So but it's a monthly recurring thing, folks. So we are going to be eating ice cream for a while. So Hannah and Owen from the Wood Cyclery in UK, they sent us a really sweet note along with their contribution. Thank you so much. I can't wait to meet you, Hannah.

SPEAKER_00 2:09

Shout out Wood Cyclery. What a shop.

SPEAKER_04 2:12

What a shop. And it's new for us.

SPEAKER_00 2:13

You've heard us talk about it in podcasts of old, but check it out check them out. Check them out. If you're anywhere near the UK, I would highly recommend doing a visit.

SPEAKER_04 2:23

Don't you feel like New England is just like old England? You wish.

SPEAKER_00 2:29

Yeah, you wish you would.

SPEAKER_04 2:30

You wish you would. Yeah. Anyway. Thank you, Anna and Owen. We also have Evan W. Brovens. Hope I'm saying that right. Thank you, Evan. There's Steven Tracy. Jabba Jim. Jabba Jim, baby. Jim Tron. Thank you. And Jose. Jose. Oh. Jose. Oh, thank you so much.

SPEAKER_00 2:50

If you were to tell me, if my high school guidance counselor were to tell me that someday I'd be earning $133 a month podcasting.

SPEAKER_04 3:00

Uh-huh. What would you tell you?

SPEAKER_00 3:02

A month.

SPEAKER_04 3:03

You would tell your guidance counselor to go back to sleep and keep dreaming out. 23 active supporters. Thank all y'all. We've thanked pretty much everyone.

SPEAKER_00 3:16

Maybe one by one. Maybe we should do like a self-help, self-help video on. I made $133 a month podcasting once a week.

SPEAKER_04 3:25

Is that self-help or is that just an advertisement?

SPEAKER_00 3:28

A side hustle.

SPEAKER_04 3:30

This is kind of our side hustle, but we really enjoy it. So thank y'all for that support. Thank you for the fan mail. We will be doing a special fan mail episode, as you know. We'll we'll keep that going. And just a reminder that, you know, we are bringing this to you on Tuesdays now, which works out so much better for our weekly workflow. And the way that we're gonna structure the show is the headlines, hot shit first, then real life report backs, then either tell them why you're mad or what's in the bike stand, because we're not mad all the time. And yeah, we'll do a special episode of just tell them why you're mad from from listeners, but we we have to generate that because y'all are to get mad.

SPEAKER_00 4:18

Y'all are a happy bunch. I wouldn't mind, yeah. We need to get a little bit madder.

SPEAKER_04 4:21

I know the summer heat should heat up our tempers a bit, right? So and seeing a bunch of other riders on the road, you could be like, what the fuck was that that just went through? What the hell?

SPEAKER_00 4:32

We wish we saw some more riders to get us mad. Um, more ankle socks to get us mad.

SPEAKER_04 4:38

Oh, don't even don't even talk about those ankle socks.

SPEAKER_00 4:40

And stick around. I mean, we're doing the pro racing, pro sport gossip stuff at the end now. We used to start with it, and I will say I've been getting a lot of messages from people saying, bring it back to the front. We love your pro sports takes and how how wrong you get the stats and things like that. That's like people seem to think that that's an alt take on facts. So in the post-world world post-truth world, we have alternative facts.

SPEAKER_04 5:07

Maybe we'll bring it back, but hell no. Like we're gonna stick to this for a little while. I'm feeling a little bit woody.

SPEAKER_00 5:14

Tour de France is coming. Tour de France is coming. So I mean, I think it's kind of for jumping ahead here.

SPEAKER_04 5:20

So that is the structure, headlines, real life, the section on what's in the bike standard, tell them why you're mad, racing, pro sports gossip, and then we'll wrap it up.

SPEAKER_00 5:30

Okay, Nam, sweetie, let me let me just generate something here.

SPEAKER_04 5:34

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 5:35

I'll take it. Generating it's thinking. Okay, it's sipping some water.

SPEAKER_04 5:38

Generating.

SPEAKER_00 5:39

Okay. Generating. Boom. Okay. Wow. REI. REI has a bike with two handlebars. If you missed this headline this week, folks, I don't know where you were, but you know, because even Ronnie got it. Even I got this one. And I'm I'm and I mean, contrary to popular belief, I'm not online that much. And I saw this.

SPEAKER_04 6:03

Yeah, he's he's got his Instagram usage too down to a science. Me, not so much. I keep erasing it. I'm on the desktop sometimes. I'm supposed to be on a complete cleanse.

SPEAKER_00 6:15

I'll come in and I'll see you on the toilet with your with your with your laptop on your lap on Instagram.

SPEAKER_04 6:20

Well, that's that's other things.

SPEAKER_00 6:21

Okay.

SPEAKER_04 6:22

Um is my safe space.

SPEAKER_00 6:26

If you didn't, if you missed it, folks, I don't know if you could still look it up. I guess you would just like Google REI AI.

SPEAKER_04 6:33

There's a business insider article about it that talks about all of the ways in which like the marketing and business side of things from like meta AI ads have failed. But yeah, this is an REI adscribed featuring.

SPEAKER_00 6:49

This is on REI's Instagram.

SPEAKER_04 6:51

An ad, yeah. An ad for Van Rysel.

SPEAKER_00 6:55

Which I thought was which I thought.

SPEAKER_04 6:57

That's a is that how you say it?

SPEAKER_00 6:59

Maybe it was Van Dysel. I thought that was the decathlon in-house brand, but maybe there's a connection there. I may be just the van part, maybe just throwing me off.

SPEAKER_02 7:08

But so many vans.

SPEAKER_00 7:09

Regardless, I mean it's a bicycle with it's a it's like a nice little country pat or it could be a big thing. It's like a park.

SPEAKER_04 7:16

It looks like Central Park.

SPEAKER_00 7:18

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 7:19

And there's a female cyclist with blonde hair. She's a white woman with this bike.

SPEAKER_00 7:27

Buckling the helmet, buckling. Buckling the helmet. It looks out.

SPEAKER_04 7:30

It looks okay, but then you look down at the bike and it's got two handlebars. One sticking out of the saddle.

SPEAKER_00 7:39

Yeah, it's a hybrid. We got a hybrid bike, but not hybrid by use case. This is hybrid by its half. The front half is a flat bar and the rear half is a drop bar. So I guess you could just turn around and pedal backwards, and you would have to do it. Oh, it's AI generated. That's not real.

SPEAKER_04 7:58

I hate to tell you, sweetheart, but no one rides bikes that look like this.

SPEAKER_00 8:03

Oh, darn it. And but so they're not selling this? This is just a false advertising?

SPEAKER_04 8:07

It's just weird. I mean, the Business Insider article again goes into the the bits and bobs. What happened?

SPEAKER_00 8:14

It's pretty wild how these outdoor brand, you know, there's it's well, you know, uh granted REI isn't I mean, it is a co-op. You know, REI has all this, I don't think people really understand fully what is going on at REI. Like REI has is an outdoor, you know, an outdoor retail business, and they are publicly traded. So they've got people at the top being like, we need to s squeeze more money out of this because now the pandemic boom is over, people aren't buying as much outdoor gear or whatever. I don't know.

SPEAKER_03 8:48

We don't know what's going on.

SPEAKER_00 8:49

What the hell is going on at REI?

SPEAKER_04 8:50

They're just making things up.

SPEAKER_00 8:52

But usual.

SPEAKER_04 8:53

But the thing is, the the thing that's weird about this ad is yeah, whatever's happening at the back end of REI, it seems like from a Reddit post I pulled up that there's employees saying they're doing more AI trainings, like this the AI integration into our lives, all the businesses, everything, obviously has been going on for a while. But this ad is really weird because the model in the in the ad is an actual person who did an actual shoot for this this bike company and REI. Like it was already a paid thing. That's Amity Rockwell. Shout out, Amity. They won Unbound in 2019 and was being very helpful with that name the change campaign. Did her best, is a decent, very decent, uh, lovely person. And she also posted, I follow her on Instagram. She f also posted this ad being like, what the heck? That's me. Like, I did this shoot. Why is there an AI version of this? There's actual photographs of what was the point of this.

SPEAKER_00 10:01

So I guess the story goes that they used Meta's AI marketing tools. So red flag there, I guess you don't want to do that because you could end up with a drop handlebar protruding out of your butt.

SPEAKER_04 10:13

It's so weird, but also because this is like an outdoors company using some of the most harmful things for the outdoors, which are like these AI data processing centers for learning language models. Like it is sucking up all of our water.

SPEAKER_00 10:32

At the same time, I feel like there's a lot of like posturing when it comes to like, oh, I'm not using AI, I am using AI, as far as like the the these bigger brands go.

SPEAKER_04 10:41

Well, you gotta pick a side.

SPEAKER_00 10:43

I don't think they have a like there's no sides, like sides are we're post-sides.

SPEAKER_04 10:48

No, we're not.

SPEAKER_00 10:48

Well, I think we're more sides than I think these brands are.

SPEAKER_04 10:52

Well, these brands are because it's they're part of the other side.

SPEAKER_00 10:57

They're not on the outside. People's attention spans, yeah, right.

SPEAKER_04 11:00

In the main thing, are you saying that you're pro AI, Ron?

SPEAKER_00 11:04

I'm not.

SPEAKER_04 11:05

Ron is official. It has new new information. Ron is.

SPEAKER_00 11:13

I think that that people's attention spans in the in the corporate world, you know, with corporate marketing. I think they're counting on people's attention spans being so short that they could change their stance on these things like over and over again, and it just doesn't it's a gamble, and people do have attention spans because they've been noticing, and people are so mad about this. Yeah, yeah. But by next month, I'm sure they will not be anymore.

SPEAKER_04 11:37

You sound like a Republican. Shiny new object.

SPEAKER_00 11:42

Yeah. Okay.

SPEAKER_04 11:44

So Ron is uh a fully AI computer model. He's basically a bot. He's no longer doing it.

SPEAKER_00 11:51

I am a bot. Give me your passwords. People, instead of money this week, please just send your passwords. I promise to keep them safe.

SPEAKER_04 11:59

Send your passwords to this large language model called Ron. He will take all of your water bottles off of your bike and drink it himself. He will.

SPEAKER_00 12:12

I'll pee in all of your water bottles.

SPEAKER_04 12:15

Anyway, let's move on from AI slot because AI makes me uncomfortable and it works out weird.

SPEAKER_00 12:20

Whatever is gonna happen with it, we'll see. We will see. But yeah, right now it's a pretty funny space.

SPEAKER_04 12:25

I think that the thing to take away from this is AI is something that's coming, that's here, that's going to be a part of our lives. What we really need to focus on is that making sure that communities, that these data processing centers that supports AI large language models are not detrimental to the health, safety, and the longevity of ecosystems and communities that they set up in. And right now, it seems like that is not a thing that is available to people in communities. And that's why folks all over the country are saying no to these data processing centers because it is making their animals weird, like people who have farms how are brands like REI gonna generate their ads at a at a decent cost. You know?

SPEAKER_00 13:14

So, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 13:16

Let's move on. We also had the Tour Divide finish last week. As you remember, we were broadcasting, and Victor Abassoni was just about to finish. He did. We're right in the world.

SPEAKER_00 13:29

We were like hours before him finishing.

SPEAKER_04 13:31

And and I was following the dot.

SPEAKER_00 13:33

And it was when that so last week when we were recording, while he was maybe two hours away from finishing, it was 108 degrees in Antelope Wells.

SPEAKER_02 13:43

Fuck Addy.

SPEAKER_00 13:46

So wow. So yeah, he finished in that sort of heat.

SPEAKER_04 13:50

And then goes back home to France to Well, I think he was Grant.

SPEAKER_00 13:53

He was he was yeah, another heat was. I wonder if he did go right back to France. But he was he finished. I mean, this was a crazy record to break. His his ride took 11 days, eight hours, and 27 minutes. That is 14.9 miles an hour if you ride 16 miles a day.

SPEAKER_03 14:13

16 hours a day. I'm sorry.

SPEAKER_00 14:15

16 miles a day. I've got too many stats in front of me. I'm not great with numbers, folks. 238 miles a day, 16 hours a day, that comes out to 14.9 miles an hour average, which is blistering.

SPEAKER_04 14:32

That's not even considering the time that you need for restocking in that 16 hours.

SPEAKER_00 14:37

That is cons Well, that is considering if you rode for 16 hours a day straight, 16 hours of riding time. That's what I was basing that off of.

SPEAKER_04 14:44

Right. And in that time, you're going to stop and get sleeping.

SPEAKER_00 14:47

Well, he said he said he'd he did five hours of he stopped for eight hours a day, and it was five hours of sleep, and the rest of the time was like, you know, just picking off saddle sores and uh, you know, washing your clothes, getting your kicking off saddles. You ever picked off a saddle sore? I've never had a saddle sort of I've never had a saddle sore that. I know someone who's gotten a staph infection from popping and picking a saddle sore, nearly died.

SPEAKER_04 15:13

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 15:14

How would you like that? Not only you you you get admitted to the emergency room and they see you're a cyclist, so you're already a second-class citizen, and then they say, Oh, you got a staph infection from picking a pimple on your taint? What is wrong with you people? So he broke the previous record by one day, 17 hours, 49 minutes. That's nearly two days. That's I don't quite co I don't quite comprehend that. That's that's a huge I mean, people are getting so fast. And his his strategy was to be super arrow. So you see any photo of him, you see that he's got like no frontal area. He's young, so he recovers really quick. A lot younger.

SPEAKER_04 16:01

He had aerosocks, which I think had a a lot to do with aerously save like 18 watts with aerosocks.

SPEAKER_00 16:06

I mean, everything adds up over when you're going nearly 15 miles an hour.

SPEAKER_04 16:10

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:11

You know, that's there's a lot of, you know, you know, aerodynamics do play a big role at that.

SPEAKER_04 16:18

Yeah, he had like the stuffed like your front stuff down for more aerodynamic stuff. He had like his jacket up there. There was like some issue with his rear rack, which is like one of those tail fin, it looks like a fork. But one of the the screws popped off like on day six or something.

SPEAKER_00 16:39

He just the French don't know about Loctite.

SPEAKER_04 16:42

They keep it loose in France.

SPEAKER_00 16:44

They keep it loose in France. So, you know, pretty dang impressive. I guess he has his his brother his brother flew out from France to meet him at the because as these it's it's you know, interestingly enough, when you have a a race and ride this big, when you get to the end, especially if you're the winner, because there's you're like so far ahead of most other people finishing, that there's oftentimes nobody waiting. There's no no one but like a border patrol agent waiting for you at Henle of Wells. So you ride 238 miles a day for 11 days and you're greeted by a border patrol. So yeah, his brother's waiting for him there. Pretty cool. So hopefully he's having a nice time recovering. Again, being young that makes such a big difference in how little you can sleep and how quickly you recover. So this is as quickly, you know, as overall, we as we've noted, the tour divide is is is you know, most of the people at the Grand Depart are, you know, of a certain age, 50, 60, 70. But as far as the racers go, we don't know anymore. We don't know anymore.

SPEAKER_04 17:45

Things have changed.

SPEAKER_00 17:45

Things have changed. So it's just everything is becoming optimized. We're learning not only in professional road racing, but in all bike racing too. Optimization. Yeah. We are maxing.

SPEAKER_04 17:56

Because of optimization maxing, this year we had three broken records. We had the men's record broken.

SPEAKER_01 18:04

Yeah, tell us about the women's record.

SPEAKER_04 18:05

We had the women's record broken by homegirl Megan Hacknin. Hackinen.

unknown 18:11

Hackinen.

SPEAKER_04 18:12

Why do I have such a hard time saying that? One more time now.

SPEAKER_01 18:16

Hacknin. Hacknin.

SPEAKER_04 18:17

Come on, now. And then we had the single speed record broken by Felix Lamarge.

SPEAKER_00 18:23

We haven't confirmed that that's another Frenchman, but the French are taking over America.

SPEAKER_04 18:28

It kind of sounds like it. It kind of sounds French, but I love that name, Felix. But let's talk about Megan. Megan Hacknin. Hacknin.

SPEAKER_00 18:36

A Canadian, which is also French adjacent.

SPEAKER_04 18:41

I think she's from the other side of the French bit of Canada, but I could be wrong because it's hard. She it's just you never know with Canadians, yeah. But her training was kind of fun. She did like all of the pro sports stuff, like you know, had elevation training.

SPEAKER_00 19:00

She did an oversion block.

SPEAKER_04 19:02

Oh, yeah, she did.

SPEAKER_00 19:03

Wow.

SPEAKER_04 19:04

She had a really like nice looking bike, too. She was she was on a suspension forked salsa. Warbird.

SPEAKER_00 19:17

It's a clean looking bike, especially for a salsa. And I will also know, I can't believe we haven't heard, we haven't gotten a newsletter from Jan about the tires yet, too.

SPEAKER_04 19:29

I know because Megan was on Jan Heine's tires. The one that was actually designed for the tour divide, because Jan would be like in all of that, those really intense stuff. But anyway, let's get back to Megan and not interrupt Megan's glory with some fucking dude. Anyway, so Megan had spent like all of this time training because she did this race in 2024 on a rigid, wanted a little bit more like arm, not have her arms be so sore, so she went with um suspension fork this time. She did a mix of high-intensity intervals, strength training, did like the indoor trainer back in the Canadian winter, it says on bikepacking.com. If you want like more in-depth, if you're really a tortified nerd, like I guess Ronnie and I kind of are, go to bikepacking and read all of these very long articles because they have all of this information that's where we're getting this from. Yeah, the person who did the reporting on this did a really nice job. So definitely take a look at that because it is good. She also did a critical four-week training block in Colorado, living and riding at high altitudes. There's like all of this information about what she did different, like spending less time off of the bike every day was part of her calculation as well as well as what Victor did, like which was making sure that she's well rested, well, well fed, just really being time conscious of the reason why she's so cool to me is because she's 40 years old and out here breaking records.

SPEAKER_03 21:08

41.

SPEAKER_04 21:09

She's 41. That's right. She was born the same year I am, but in January. So we've already passed January this year. So big, big hats off to Megan. She also did the mountain uh endurance, like three really intense mountain races, like the uh the Silk Road, the Hellenic mountain race, and the Atlas. She did all three in 2025 last year. She didn't win them all, she did win the for finishing first in all of them, yeah. So amazing. Amazing athlete. Love to see her. Megan win. Go Megan.

SPEAKER_00 21:47

Hegany.

SPEAKER_03 21:48

Hagini.

SPEAKER_00 21:49

14 days, 11 hours. She beat Austin Killip's previous uh previous record now, now previous record, by 11 hours. Um she at averaged 187 miles a day at 11.7 miles an hour.

SPEAKER_02 22:06

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:07

What stands out about Megan to me is the Map Pay cap.

SPEAKER_02 22:14

As if you yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:16

That to me the Map Pay cap is a nod to it's not only the best looking, the best designed cycling cap of all time, you can still pick up some new ones. Apis still makes them brand new. But if anybody is unf Apece, is anyone is unfamiliar with the Map Pay team of the infamous Map Pay team of the 90s, it was perhaps the most juiced team ever.

SPEAKER_04 22:42

And so you know they looked good. They looked wild.

SPEAKER_00 22:45

Fantastic. So and also the best kits. I mean I could go on and on and on. But to me wearing a Map Pay cap, I don't know, I can't speak for Megan, but for me it was always a nod to the golden era of cycling, which was full of dope.

SPEAKER_03 22:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 22:59

There's so many different golden eras of cycling, but the doping age was pretty entertaining.

SPEAKER_03 23:04

Pretty entertaining. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 23:05

I want I want my athletes to have to set their watch for the middle of the night so they can get up and do calisthenic so that the thick blood in their veins doesn't pool up in their heart and stop. They've got to do their heart rates can't get too low.

SPEAKER_04 23:17

You know that's true. Only eat popcorn and horse meat athletes don't sleep smoke cigarettes.

SPEAKER_00 23:23

Shout out to Matt Pay. Thanks thanks for thanks Rob. Thanks for yeah thanks wonder if Megan ate horse meat.

SPEAKER_04 23:31

I don't know. I'm sure she ate whatever she felt like it's that'll come out later.

SPEAKER_00 23:36

We seem to talk about the horse meat diet every other episode. Just keeping that streak going. We so let's talk about the single speeder another record broken.

SPEAKER_04 23:46

That's pretty much all I know about that is that is that the single speeder broken speed record was broken. Maybe we'll do a little bit more on that next week if we have the research that was 14 days seven hours 36 minutes.

SPEAKER_00 23:59

That's that beat a previously existing record that had stood for six for 10 years since 2016 by one day 25 minutes. It's just pretty massive folks are getting faster even without gears. And you know the the whole thing folks if you're not if you're not familiar with riding single speeds long distances the whole idea is that you know you're going to have to walk up some climbs but the the simplicity of the because you know your shit gets pretty fucked up out there. It really does yeah so you you're you know you're you you you don't have to worry about your you know your your highly uh fragile uh 12 to 13 speed gear range in the rear and how gear small problems how terrible that could work in the mud and and how you could break a driller all these other things but you may have to walk a few times and you're going to be spinning out you know on the on the road sections which I can't take. I have to I can't really do have you ever ridden a a single speed or is it only a only a fixed gear for you? I've ridden single speed but not like significant I could do it yeah I can only do I what I never liked about single speed mountain bikes is that you can't ride them to the trailhead effectively and have like the correct gear to ride in the trails. I hate spinning out it just mashes my taint I don't mind on a fixed gear because it pushes through the other side but you're not going to do toward on fixed gear.

SPEAKER_04 25:22

I'm sure somebody has but so yeah there there's that people are just getting faster gears are not so well I've been chatting over text with Samantha and she wants to try this again she would want to do it with gears.

SPEAKER_00 25:33

Sam Scipio this is who this is who you've attempted both of your attempts with yeah she is Team Yin Yang.

SPEAKER_04 25:41

Team Yin Yang yeah you're you're are you thinking about wanting to do this again all this what draws you to this it's partly the photos that come out from it and remembering that like I was there there's like this I don't know a very ethereal pull it's a soft pull that gets louder and louder in my head like okay so maybe my bike wasn't right or maybe my head space wasn't right. Last time Samantha had like nerve damage that she had on her hands that was really kicking up. So can't do that we'll we both need arrow bars.

SPEAKER_00 26:20

And you guys were averaging like 120 a day or so?

SPEAKER_04 26:23

Far less for people so the training has to be serious. I mean I'm reading about Megan's training for winning this and it's like well I probably won't do altruity training for four weeks.

SPEAKER_00 26:38

Well I you are you are a great candidate for this type of riding because you have like you have hyperfixation rain man you've you've got you don't get saddles you don't mind junk food. I love junk food your body runs off it runs well off junk food. Yes and I love junk food.

SPEAKER_04 27:01

I guess that's those are th three things that And I'm small and non-threatening so other people have offered me their guns and stuff for protection. Right. You know they're like you need to be protected small child I'm like I'm a 40 year old woman leave me alone I don't want your guns anyway that's that's for later let's move on to John's summer picks. Oh John from the Radivist we're both we're both big fans of the Radivist of course and everything they do but I was just popping through the website as I do normally and I saw John's 2026 summer picks. This is the actual John Watson's website theradivist.com look through that stuff it's it's a bunch of really cool stuff that you may or may not be able to afford but he loves his road of course that little that little bar and thing is cool but we mostly want to talk about the ultradynamic attire yeah he loves the the brute so of course so we that we can we could let that be our we could let that be our ad break for the day.

SPEAKER_00 28:10

Yeah ultradynamico brute 700 by 53 get them now at ultradynamico.com Ultradynamico ultradynamico that camping that campignolo cutter by winter cutlery who makes swords like legit swords like I would love to I will I will pay top dollar for most things that say campingolo on it but this thing is like a a honed down campingola peanut butter wrench which is how you tighten your tighten your cranks with it. Yeah and so that's already like a coveted that's a very rare item so to to to you better know a pretty good sword maker sorry sword maker if you're going to uh pound a campy peanut butter wrench into submission and make it into a knife and uh that guy knows how to do it. So nice picks John thanks for including us book Rex Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula Guinn 1969 it is what's up Ursula is one of my favorite authors I have seen a lot of Ursula in the bathroom yeah she's an anarchist feminist writer just passed away recently was just a source of lots and lots of sci-fi inspiration and then of course all of um John's sci-fi obscure black metal which he is very much a purveyor of I think very much into yeah yeah so a lot of love to that Radabus become a member I wanted to independent journalism is important as we know as we know with all of these sites that we're referencing Escape Collective included yeah it's all you know there's there's great stuff out there if you're willing to pay a little bit like you know a lot of cycling I know all all cycling websites like if I go on like cycling news or like that you just or fellow news I don't even know if that's a thing anymore but you just get I don't go on these sites because you just get bombarded with advertisements and I don't there's so many bots to click on I don't know what I'm I don't know what I'm doing.

SPEAKER_04 30:06

You know he gets confused to be with his other AI friends. Ron is AI I think that's perfect.

SPEAKER_00 30:15

Yeah I will pee in your water bottles. He's peeing in your water bottles he's dyeing his hair I wanted to do I mean well let's let's wrap up the headlines there. I think that's about 15 minutes as we as we had planned yeah oops I should check make sure we're actually still recording here. Yes okay no that's 31 minutes. Okay well I wanted to do a real quick saddle picker because after we did our saddle our brief saddle episode two episodes ago or three episodes whatever it was I had a lot of questions from people saying like oh I've got this sort of bike what saddle would you recommend blah blah blah not blah blah blah there were insightful questions that I enjoy reading and answering but it's easier for me to answer live on the air at WKY Jelly as we are right now. So I wanted to just give you know as many of you know the the alt bike saddle of choice is a leather saddle okay a hammock style leather saddle this allows you to ride in your normal clothes. It's hard to ride in your normal clothes on a on a people can do it. I'm not saying you can't but it's hard to ride in a saddle designed to be used with a chamois which is a hard plastic with the foam on top. So I mean by default right that leather saddle if you could ride it without a chamois that becomes that's pretty much the that's pretty much the the the nectar of alt is it not alt cycling I mean you know so I mean the way I look at it is kind of like the the inception right there. The nectar of alt so you know lives between your legs there's three notable oh we have someone at the door yeah there are three okay while aria gets the door I'll continue talking we have three notable oh they're picking up your packages folks if you ordered at ronzabikes.com there are three notable leather manufacturers of choice with cycling saddles okay that includes guiles platooned however you want to talk about it that is a French manufacturer been around for a while there is of course Brooks Daddy Brooks been around for a very long while and then you've got Cycles Ideale which is another French manufacturer ideale ideale I've got I've spent a lot of time on all three so that's why you should trust me obsessed with saddles and we don't get that many saddles either like when you do get them it's usually in like the later part of the summer when you've really been I've got to keep clean though I've got to dunk after after every ride I've pretty much got to dunk in the water and if I'm touring I got to cauterise over the over the open flame otherwise I I do get saddles that's been an ongoing thing for me and that's why I won't do rides like the tourtivide is because saddle sores are a big big issue for me. Not a big issue if I'm gonna ride every day they will happen. If I'm gonna ride 238 miles a day I would I would have a staph infection so the use case for your saddles depends upon your handlebar folks your position is it a a level almost level with the saddle is it above the saddle is it a low bar okay so if it's a handlebar that is level with the saddle or above the saddle unanimously go for the B17 the Brooks B17 the classic I would recommend the utmost if you weigh above 250 pounds I mean sorry 150 pounds because the newer Brooks leather does wear out a little quicker breaks in quicker but it does wear out quicker and if you got an upright position you're putting more weight on the saddle less weight on the handlebars so I would recommend a thicker leather because there's more weight on the saddle. You could do the the cutout which is the uh imperial or the carved of the Brooks but again that saddle's gonna wear out a little bit quicker because there's less leather on there so it's gonna stretch a little more again if you have if you don't have a problem with your with your saddle being really long then I guess that's not big that much of an issue but if you do weigh more I would I would I would tend to stay in your saddles in your saddle is level with your handlebars or slightly below I would I would stay away from the cutout. If you are doing if your handlebars are lower than your than your saddle okay uh you've got more weight on the hands I would recommend something a little racier. I like the Brooks Professional that saddle's been around for a really long time too it's got a really beautiful shape to it. I don't believe it comes in titanium rails unfortunately I wish they would that would if I owned Brooks that would be the first thing I would do is make all of my high-end saddles titanium railed including the professional probably I would cut the line just down to the B-17 and the professional for leather saddles. So check out the professional an older professional even better the ones you can get off eBay those things will last forever. The Arevis tie is the Bertuned saddle of choice there those are a very nice saddle I you know they don't look great I don't think they look as nice as a Brooks Professional but that's a very high quality saddle thick leather it's gonna last you a long time going to break in a little bit longer like I wasn't able to ride those for a while because my tank I just lacked the fortitude on my taint to break those things in but but but I've in recent in recent years as my fortified get that taint fortified in recent years I've been experimenting with racier positioning again and with less weight on my saddle and more weight on my handlebars I'm able to ride that saddle if you use the cutout on theirs I don't know if they call that a different name but if you use their cutout you can't really ride their cutout with standard shorts it pinches your taint which is a really strange feeling if you've already got like a little saddle sore forming down there and then it pinches it and almost wants to pop it for you. Ooh tasting we're gonna call that Airvisai with a cutout we're gonna call that thing a pimple popper. We've talked about that a lot today huh already so another option there is the Cambium C13 that is a Brooks product with it's not leather but it still is a hammock style. It comes in a cutout it's carbon railed so it's nice and light and I've found that thing to be a especially the carved one to be very very flexible and comfortable.

SPEAKER_04 36:43

Well that's my saddle picker I hope that helps everybody oh that's really good Jenny saddle picker like you're picking wedgies or you're making choices.

SPEAKER_00 36:55

I'm not wearing underwear I'm wearing my tiniest jean shorts his taint is getting fortified yeah yeah but I'm I yeah I just it's for the look I wish I I would wear loose shorts all the time because maybe that would help my help air out the taint a little bit also but taint talks taint talks gotta look got a look taint alt bike now if it ain't got taint yeah yeah ain't got taint if it ain't got taint it ain't alt bike now it ain't got taint all right I wrote that on the back of a a letter from the bank so hopefully there's nothing that I need in that package.

SPEAKER_04 37:35

Okay moving on to where are we now thank you for the saddle picks Jenny that I think that's gonna be really helpful for people yeah because I can't relate I can't relate to anybody because my taint is yeah back to I mean that that rolls right into your real life report backs. Arya here's burn yep yep yep I'm on a streak I made promises and I'm trying my best to keep them and I'm actually feeling very good mentally because I rode 150 miles last week and then like 85 miles the week before so I'm kind of these aren't easy miles.

SPEAKER_00 38:13

These are these these these are off off at times off-road we're talking climbing.

SPEAKER_04 38:19

I mean where do we know it's easy around here it's not flat but it's not difficult either. Okay. Again my mental health has been a lot better because of it. I'd say I mean it's they s you know all the things that they talk about with diet diet and exercise turns out yeah exercise is great for people who have depressive episodes sometimes you know we've all been through some things and I knew that I was feeling depression because I didn't want to ride and it's like my favorite thing for the last two years. Like ebbing and flowing out. So it's really good to be back.

SPEAKER_00 38:59

The last two years you've been kind of getting in and out of it. Yeah but it's been your favorite thing for how long?

SPEAKER_04 39:06

Ten years. Like solidly for ten years. I mean when we were first touring when I decided to give up my life and tour with this really hot boy I just met two years ago it was just like some of the best healing that I've ever done. So concentrated you're out there alone I think that's the other stuff I like about the tour divide too is like you're out there alone you're just kind of with your thoughts I love that stuff. So this past week I rode three different bikes which is really nice. I rode my Chris chance titanium fat chance titanium fat chance size 13 inches it's very small and it's so light and perfect and it's got like a triple in the front with plenty of gears to go up and down climbs it's sick. I rode my Cannondale Pre-Cad CAD for the roadie ride and then I've been on the crust Romeo with fat tires that I did the tour on and that beach ride on it was you've had that you've had that bike probably for nearly for 10 years now probably yeah yeah and I am itching for other bikes now because I love having a stable is that what it's called a stable of steeds yeah you call it your quiver oh I like the quiver better because I have these arrow tattoos yeah my quiver my quiver but isn't a weapons well top my quiver makes me quiver.

SPEAKER_00 40:42

Okay that's the way I look at it and it does I gotta bite my lip every time I enter that barn ooh bow down bow down I gotta put on a diaper and yeah I I don't know what jumps aren't landing anymore because um yeah but I you know it's I am so thrilled to have my favorite riding partner back.

SPEAKER_04 41:06

Who's that?

SPEAKER_00 41:07

Good question.

SPEAKER_04 41:10

He loves me so much.

SPEAKER_00 41:11

I mean if you are I'm in love with an AI bot if you have a sweetheart that you get to ride your bike with and spend time on the bike with it's such quality time and it's QT with the QT. And it's the best for me. And I and not only that I get to just stare at your beautiful body.

SPEAKER_03 41:33

That is not AI.

SPEAKER_00 41:34

That is I mean whatever I get to stare at your beautiful body and I get to watch your watch the sensations would you say that my body is a wonderland it is a wonderland I get I get to I get to wonder at the wonderland that is your body um and their your your your candy lips and your bubble glove tongue lips and John Mayer is from Connecticut.

SPEAKER_04 42:03

Yeah we get to claim him so I it's good to be back.

SPEAKER_00 42:06

It's just nice to ride with you and it's just nice to and I mean one of the one of the big reasons I mean any of you who have tried to balance your love of cycling with the love of your partner oftentimes if they don't intertwine it's pretty hard to maintain either one of those relationships. As we know cycling is a cost intensive and time intensive sport whether it be alt or professional or mainstream.

SPEAKER_04 42:34

It does require so much if I mean it's like I've lost a lot of my fitness and like if I didn't have all of those touring miles like for four years pretty much riding every single day it's I don't know those were my base miles I guess and it's hard to access them. It really is I have I'm not there yet.

SPEAKER_00 42:55

But you are accessing it I'm accessing. It's just a a matter of time and you know uh 15 to 30 hours a week is how long you're on a bike as a serious cyclist. So that's time that you're not spending with your significant other after work or on the weekends. And you know it's it it's can be hard to balance so it's a big it's a big up to have your sweetheart also into bikes with you and that is always the dream as a serious cyclist to find somebody for me personally who enjoys cycling at least you know 50% as much as I do, if not more. Which is really it's a really nice thing to share.

SPEAKER_04 43:35

Yeah you're pretty obsessed.

SPEAKER_00 43:36

I'm obsessed but you know it it it dictates the vacations you go on it dictates the the things that you may talk about day to day it's just uh it's really hard to really hard to relate to a non cyclist like what your cycling life is all about. And to someone like me it's all encompassing and it has been my entire life. So great to have you back alongside me, sweetie. Because I was thinking of that when we were riding back from Niannick last Thursday after riding out there with Troy and Balls for we did like just a on a whim, like 53 mile, 55 mile ride, right?

SPEAKER_02 44:16

Fire in the Kitchen pizza.

SPEAKER_00 44:17

Fire in the Kitchen, which is which does is the official pizza of the Nutmeg Nor'easter each year. Some friends and for good reason because it is literally many of you know Connecticut has the best pizza in the world. And I'm telling you, Fire in the Kitchen is up there as far as the best pizza in Connecticut goes.

SPEAKER_04 44:36

It is the best pizza. Fight me.

SPEAKER_00 44:38

Oh my god.

SPEAKER_04 44:39

Come find me, bro.

SPEAKER_00 44:40

So yeah. So after you know, getting some pizza at the beach, we rode back home and I was just it was just a beautiful summer evening. We were it was probably eight o'clock, maybe eight thirty by the time we got home. Really stretching those longest days of the year. And I just remember looking to my side and seeing you and just being just overflowing with happiness because that is to me, that is the ideal day. You know, and that we can that we get to do that. And we got home to our to the barn and opened up the back door and just looked at all the fireflies in the lower field. Yeah. It was a light show.

SPEAKER_04 45:17

Yeah. That was a good thing.

SPEAKER_00 45:18

And this is why we do it, folks. This is what gets this is why, you know, this is why we get up in the morning, you know. This is life. You know, if you can find these magical moments in life, you know.

SPEAKER_04 45:30

It doesn't even feel real. We're not going to be able to do that. It doesn't feel real. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 45:33

It's magical. And so, you know, we have access to that because of the bicycle.

SPEAKER_04 45:36

That's why I'm Lauria Summer right now. Because I am in love with summer.

SPEAKER_00 45:41

Oh. Well, let's go back.

SPEAKER_04 45:43

Let's uh let's go to tell what's in the bike stand.

SPEAKER_00 45:47

Yeah, I mean, well, this kind of this is gonna roll right on over into your your future plans as far as cycling goes. Yeah. You're back on the bike or thinking about bikes. What are you thinking about?

SPEAKER_04 45:58

I am. It's been really nice going into the barn and seeing the bikes that you're building up for customers or yourself because it gives me a lot of ideas. I have a lot of, you know, like frames or half-finished stuff here and there that I really want to put together. I've been riding the same bikes for like over five years now, and I'm just ready to have something a little bit different. You know, if if I'm gonna keep my bike interests fresh, I gotta keep my bikes fresh.

SPEAKER_00 46:31

You gotta spend money, folks.

SPEAKER_04 46:33

Get a new bike every five years or so. You know, gotta build the quiver up. Yeah. Sharpening this.

SPEAKER_00 46:40

If your quiver doesn't make you quiver, it's time to change it up.

SPEAKER_04 46:44

Yeah. I mean, my quiver is still making me quiver.

SPEAKER_00 46:47

You still got some pretty sweet bikes.

SPEAKER_04 46:49

I have the sickest bikes, according to me. But I want an Alumax, like a gravel bike that is light. The closest thing I have to that right now is probably the lightning bolt, which is kind of like a randoneering style bike.

SPEAKER_00 47:04

I would like to say it's low trail, it's different geometry than like a modern gravel bike. It's made more for long distance riding rather than like really rough.

SPEAKER_04 47:14

Exactly. I mean, I did a tour on the lightning bolt with paneers out um out west.

SPEAKER_00 47:21

Again, being at your small frame size allows for pretty much any frame to be able to do that. All roads lead to that for me, I guess, according to Ron.

SPEAKER_04 47:29

Um but yeah, I do want that Alumax like pretty dialed in because Alumax 2 that we just offered on Ron's Bikes.com and we reserved an extra small.

SPEAKER_00 47:40

We made one extra small, and that is for you.

SPEAKER_04 47:43

It's for me. It's there. Frame and fork are ready to go. Thank you.

SPEAKER_00 47:48

It's gonna be your first, it's gonna be your first, I mean, it's your first fat-tired 700C bike. You're gonna get to try the new. You can either run the the you know our 45s, the 45 Roses, or you could run the 53 Brutes.

SPEAKER_04 48:05

I'd do the Brutes.

SPEAKER_00 48:06

So it's basically gonna be like a 32-inch 32. It would be like me going to a 32-inch.

SPEAKER_04 48:12

Yeah, I can't wait to roll over some stuff. But I want to try cross racing again since our friend Jeremy's putting on that mayhem series that's independent of EUSAC and definitely not fit at all, but because it's our pal and it's a fun series, I want to. And cross isn't even coming yet.

SPEAKER_00 48:31

You got time.

SPEAKER_04 48:32

Cross isn't coming yet, but you got time.

SPEAKER_00 48:34

You got time. You you put in you put in these end of July.

SPEAKER_04 48:38

I mean, it's the end of June already. You know, I've got two months.

SPEAKER_01 48:42

Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 48:43

If anything, I am concentrated on one thing for like I just jump into the hot pot and stay there, and then I jump out when I'm ready. So I'll do that.

SPEAKER_00 48:55

So you want to what do you how do you want to build up that Ali Max?

SPEAKER_04 48:58

I would like want some well, we talked about the the tires, which is like the first thing to talk about. It's obviously gonna be drop bars.

SPEAKER_00 49:07

I'll say, I'll say it here first, folks. Just gonna like just gonna push it in there that Ultra Dynamico has a carbon rim break rim that we are releasing. So I should have my samples this week. I'm gonna build it up into a wheel. But it's traditional, box-shaped, very lightweight, sub 400 gram.

SPEAKER_04 49:31

Are you saying that because that's for me and my IMS? Well, yeah, that's oh my god.

SPEAKER_00 49:37

Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 49:38

So I just feel like I won the publisher's clearinghouse sweepstakes. They're coming up the driveway with the loops at that big check right now for me. That's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 49:48

So yeah, we can build them up with tune hubs, white industry hubs.

SPEAKER_04 49:53

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 49:54

You know, so amazing.

SPEAKER_04 49:56

Wow, Aria's dreams comes true. So I have I have that in mind and mostly just saying it so Ron will build it for me. What's your color?

SPEAKER_00 50:05

What's your uh what colors are you looking for?

SPEAKER_04 50:07

Well, I wanted to do that yeti combo color.

SPEAKER_02 50:15

The teal perp look.

SPEAKER_00 50:16

Is that do we call that teal? I always forget that.

SPEAKER_02 50:19

No, it's not teal.

SPEAKER_00 50:20

Well it's like hot, it's like a hot yellow fork and a uh turquoise green. That's it. It's turquoise.

SPEAKER_02 50:26

Turquois.

SPEAKER_00 50:29

To mimic the uh Yeti ARC.

SPEAKER_04 50:32

Yeah, I didn't want that look, but Oh, you're you're you're changing your mind. Because I I want that combo, the blue fork and the yellow frame combo for like more of a mountain bike.

SPEAKER_00 50:45

Okay, gotcha.

SPEAKER_04 50:45

Or vice versa. I can do whatever. Okay, I can pick the colors, right? So I'm not sure yet on the color.

SPEAKER_00 50:52

Okay. We don't know what color yet. You know what, you know what anodized colors you're looking for? This would be basically what I'd be going over with a uh a customer here. So this is good. So we start with the frame color, and then I say, what what what do you want your accents to be?

SPEAKER_04 51:08

My accents, well, it's hard to pick when I haven't figured out what my main color is, right? So I really like that lavender, that fat chance lavender. It's gorgeous. And then I would want like kind of gray silver accents.

SPEAKER_00 51:25

Okay, well that's easy. It's just silver components. But I I would do gray gray silver, but I would add some purple in there, of course. Yeah. I would do like the paw breaks, but like the purple adjusters. Or like the purple, uh yeah, you know, like the little the little little Bebop bloops you could put in there. There's a lot of like.

SPEAKER_04 51:42

I want Samantha's heart hangers on there.

SPEAKER_00 51:45

And purple.

SPEAKER_04 51:46

I have the red and the black here. I might I really like the purple, red, and gray combo altogether. I don't know if you're gonna do that.

SPEAKER_00 51:53

Purple, red, and gray?

SPEAKER_04 51:55

Yeah, purple and red look great together.

SPEAKER_00 51:58

Okay. I mean, this will this will be your build.

SPEAKER_04 52:02

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 52:02

All right. I would it's not my I don't like mixing handedized colors generally.

SPEAKER_04 52:07

I do.

SPEAKER_00 52:08

Okay. All right, all right.

SPEAKER_04 52:09

He doesn't like mixing. He doesn't like it when things mix.

SPEAKER_00 52:13

Ooh. Obviously, I do.

SPEAKER_04 52:18

But maybe I want this like pastel orange. Yeah, I haven't I haven't thought that deep. Okay, that deep.

SPEAKER_00 52:23

Alright, you haven't thought that deeply. We're gonna have to come back. I'm still because this is this is I feel like our our listeners are already all already bricked up, right? They're bricked up right now.

SPEAKER_04 52:33

Okay. And they want to be. This week my homework is to think about my my colors, the saddle.

SPEAKER_00 52:40

Because we gotta start order ordering stuff.

SPEAKER_04 52:42

Yeah, I'm excited that I might have the fun new wheels. That's really sick.

SPEAKER_00 52:48

Pronounce wheels. So we've got Aria's dream bike builds. So there's hard, there's you've got a squar hardtail. Oh, it's not hanging up there. That's unpainted. It's waiting for a suspension fork. It needs to be suspension forks, as it turns out, are really expensive. Like a like a good suspension fork is nearly a thousand dollars these days. Last time I shopped for suspension forks, it probably was a bomber Z2, Marzoki Bomber Z2 in 2002. I believe those were like $300. And that was the best fork you can get.

SPEAKER_04 53:22

Maybe I can find something in the rad bazaar on the city. Oh, you're gonna look at a lot of stuff in there. Oh no, what the biggest? There's all you can get this fork, Black Mountain Cycle Monster Cross.

SPEAKER_00 53:37

That's not a suspension fork.

SPEAKER_04 53:39

Oh, it's it just looked big. Oh, here we go. Rock Shock's Pike 26, that's not gonna work.

SPEAKER_00 53:46

Yeah, I you know, we'll find some.

SPEAKER_04 53:48

But it's in there and I don't have to pay a thousand dollars.

SPEAKER_00 53:50

We don't have to pay a thousand dollars, obviously, because we are bike industry. But if we maybe, you know your bike industry.

SPEAKER_04 53:58

I have to you have to ask. I have to ask. You have to beg. I don't have to beg. I would never beg.

SPEAKER_00 54:07

So, okay, so you that hardtail build is gonna be pretty sweet.

SPEAKER_04 54:11

Oh shit, I'm getting lost on the game.

SPEAKER_00 54:12

You're getting lost, and we're already at 56 minutes here. Okay, so good grief. That is the end of your dream bike builds. We're gonna have to come back to that hardtail.

SPEAKER_02 54:20

The end of my dream bike.

SPEAKER_00 54:21

Stay bricked up, everyone. Okay, Arya's dream will continue because we gotta talk about pro racing, pro sports gossip.

SPEAKER_03 54:32

All right.

SPEAKER_00 54:36

We've got an incredible three weeks ahead of us. Coming up. This is what I look forward to every summer since I was a child is Le Tour and Du France. Oui, Tour de France, as Bob Roll would say. It is, I mean, it to me, the tour symbolizes peak summer. Like summer happens during the tour. Um and it's over after the tour for me, also. I I there's uh it's kind of like postpartum, right?

SPEAKER_03 55:11

Kind of a sadness, yeah, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:14

So it's everyone seems to think, and you and with with just cause that Tade Pagaccio will win his fifth this year. But there are some really interesting kind of uh side quests or what would you call that, stories within the story as far as the rest of the DC goes. There always is. And and this this I think that the top of this headline, even though we have plenty of tour gossip to talk about, the is the biggest piece of tour gossip. All right, do so Namdol.

SPEAKER_03 55:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:45

Tade Pagacha, the greatest cyclist, the greatest male cyclist of all time. What I mean, obviously he's got plenty of um he's got plenty of Riz. Rizazz. He's got plenty of, what was I calling that? Deals with other deals with other brands that garner him a lot of money and sponsorships and winning races and all this other stuff. But his base salary. Do you know what it is?

SPEAKER_04 56:11

The greatest cyclist male cyclist of all time.

SPEAKER_00 56:14

Yeah, base. There's no salary caps in cycling, folks. Okay. So what is what is his salary? He's so he is he is a petrol state, UAE.

SPEAKER_01 56:24

Yeah, you know.

SPEAKER_00 56:25

They've got unlimited funds. They could pay whatever they want. So as and and and Tade was is the most high is the highest paid, I mean, with 9.5 million? Dollars. 9.5 million dollars, 8 million euro. Okay. So that is But he's locked into that. So what is what does Jonas get paid? So his his closest rival, Jonas Vindigo, little baby Yonas, who's actually two years older than him. Yonas Vindigo's salary, 5 million euro, 6.5 million dollars. So, you know, that's that's kind of baseline of what cyclists get paid. I think we've we've done some comparisons to two European football players, and it's like the bench warmers get paid that much.

SPEAKER_04 57:08

Yeah. So it's the top the top footballers get paid like 350 million a year. You know, it's like above and beyond.

SPEAKER_00 57:17

So it's not it's not big.

SPEAKER_04 57:19

Even like big cycling, big culture cycling is still alt compared to sports worlds. Because it is such small potatoes, such small fries. Well, because and and don't even get me started on the women. They get paid next to fucking nobody.

SPEAKER_00 57:34

They don't get paid. They got a pay to enter, pretty much. Oh, I'm getting so so you know, even at like Arya said, uh professional ranks are still alt when you compare it to other other sports.

SPEAKER_04 57:45

Like Demi Vollering, who is like the main girl in cycling, like made a million dollar contract and it was like breaking news.

SPEAKER_01 57:57

And that's what Nike girls.

SPEAKER_04 57:59

It's with Nike specialize, like it's with that vase too. Like and the wins that she has, it's still a million and her thirst trap Instagram.

SPEAKER_00 58:10

I don't think they're thirstraping. Not thirst trap, but you do give me you you do give me heck when I like any of her posts.

SPEAKER_03 58:15

That's not true. You do. Well, I guess it's because I'm on Team Casha. I'm still sold young tour tour defense to you. Anyway.

SPEAKER_00 58:24

Anyway, Paul Sexas, the young Frenchman.

SPEAKER_03 58:28

How old?

SPEAKER_00 58:29

19 years old, folks.

SPEAKER_03 58:31

Jeez.

SPEAKER_00 58:31

Has this the longest stage race he's ever finished is eight days.

SPEAKER_04 58:37

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 58:38

I mean, pretty unconscious. He hasn't even done a grand tour. So there's already this is the next great French hope. And he's he's I mean he's shown great promise. I've we've seen him go up against Pogachar, say, in in some and Liege Baston Liege, for example, where he was the only one that could stay with Pogachar's just relentless attacking uh strategy. He's 19 years old. There's a lot of bidding wars going around, a lot of rumors swirling around the internet. Well, he's currently with Decathlon, Chimachugum, which is the which is decathlon, of course, is kind of like the REI of Europe, for lack of a better comparison. Maybe like REI and Dick Sporting Goods combined. Um, so they can afford to pay him whatever. They're a French team.

SPEAKER_03 59:27

Chimbachugum.

SPEAKER_00 59:28

People want them to stay on that team. Uh so yeah, we'll see how that evolves. But Tom Pickcock's team, which is, I gotta look at it, Pinarello Q 36.5, uh, which is a second-tier team, also, and but is owned by a billionaire. Don't ever like look into like who owns all these teams because you'll you'll quickly become disenchanted.

SPEAKER_01 59:54

It's like Dr. Evil pending a hairless cat, just being like, we'll give him.

SPEAKER_00 59:58

Don't even look into it. Yeah, but Paul's okay, so again, highest paid cyclist, best male cyclist ever, Tate Pogar, Pagaccha, however you want to say his name, eight million euro, eight to nine million euro.

SPEAKER_03 1:00:11

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:11

They're offering this 19-year-old who has never raised a grand tour before 13 million euro.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:20

13 million euro per season.

SPEAKER_00 1:00:23

Per season. Is it per season? That's a good one. So he's roughly he's roughly making I'm not great at math. He's roughly making a million dollars a month.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:36

The mathematician has entered the chat. Thank you, folks. 13 million a year, so that's like what?

SPEAKER_00 1:00:43

A little million, a little bit a month.

SPEAKER_04 1:00:45

Um so who knows what that after tax is, I'm sure it's like I mean, what's crazy to me is that this huge package was offered to him just based on the fact that he could match Tade. Didn't even beat Tade that day, right? Like just the fact that he could match him.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:03

I mean, he's clearly the the next. I mean, we'll we'll we will definitely uh see this this tour will show us exactly what this guy's made of.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:12

What's the big deal? Like, what do they know?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:13

I don't even know if you call him a guy yet, this boy.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:16

But he uh he's what do they know that we don't like did he have like an American Flyers Young Brother moment where he like did that FTP test or what is it called?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:27

I mean who knows.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:28

VO2 Max test, and they were like, whoa, he's amazing. Let's give him 13 million euros. I mean, it's it's uh or is it because he's young?

SPEAKER_00 1:01:37

Well, he's young, he's French, he's multiple, and he's shown so much potential already, and he knows how good he is.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:42

And being French does have a lot to do with the first time. Great implication.

SPEAKER_00 1:01:45

I mean, the France the Tour de France is the biggest by far, the biggest, but you know, the biggest event of the year. Yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:01:53

And it's you were saying that the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift is more watched than the Men's Giro Italian.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:02

Which is the you know, which is yeah, it's remarkable. We'll have to talk about those stats later because uh yeah, Escape Collective put out like a really cool little article last week about the viewership of all the races, and it's really interesting to see because it is such a you gotta s you gotta subscribe to like three different streaming services to watch professional cycling.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:21

Which we do, so you don't have to.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:22

Yeah. Well anyway, I'm my my big concern with Paul Sex S is that a 19-year-old to have that much pressure to think that to have like a team want to pay you more than the guy that you're tasked with with beating.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:35

So then the entire Peloton is looking at you like I'm gonna beat that little boy.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:41

Yeah. So I don't know. We'll see, we'll see how it goes.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:44

We'll see what what Paul's made of.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:46

I feel like it's less cycling is way less cutthroat than it once was. Like these are definitely nicer people in general.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:53

So I feel like they can perform better.

SPEAKER_00 1:02:56

Like I don't think they can perform being nice better.

SPEAKER_04 1:02:59

They can perform being nice better. I do I do sense because that's why I got into the cycling, like big race watching too, is I thought that the respect, camaraderie, the etiquette, that like I really like all of those bits because it's like something that you as a culture or community keep yourself. Like there's no governing body or police being like, hey, you should wait for Tade if he fell and you two are the competitors, like Jonas did. I'm a big fan of Jonas, actually. I know not a lot of people like him, but I like that he's disheveled. I like that he tries, I like that he's kind of boring, like this. And that he's like his family in the yeah, his children are adorable. Like, I I like Jonas.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:42

Patrick actually saw Jonas on his train ride, and he even Patrick likes Jonas now.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:47

Patrick likes Jonas too. Oh god, I knew he would just because he waved at him and was nice. I'm like, that's a nice boy.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:54

Well, you know.

SPEAKER_04 1:03:55

Anyway, I like all that stuff, but you know, Paul.

SPEAKER_00 1:03:59

Paul is, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:00

Well we don't know him.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:01

We don't know.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:01

We don't know her.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:04

It's gonna be. I can't wait. I mean, Del Toro, too, which is the young Mexican star. Del Toro who almost won the Giro, who should have won the Giro uh last year.

SPEAKER_01 1:04:13

Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:14

Is is this is his tour debut, I believe. He is a tour debutante.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:21

And we've watched him winning for a few years.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:25

We watched him win a stage of the Tour Down Under, which I saw as the as one of the least watched cycling events of the year.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:32

Yeah, the landscape is not the best.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:34

We were there watching. We were watching. They all should be. We watched Del Toro, we watched Del Toro win the Wollonga Hill.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:39

Um when he was 19.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:41

Yeah, he's he was 19 too. And I remember Phil Liggett saying, Remember that name.

SPEAKER_04 1:04:46

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 1:04:47

And I was like, okay, well when he was still remembering names. Arguably. He did remember Del Toro. And I let we love Del Toro's uh his winning bow victory salute, the bow.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:00

Yeah, it's gorgeous.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:02

It's gonna be cool to see all of these. This is gonna be. I mean, we we s Remco says that he's uh at peak form better than he was last year. Yona says he's doing well. He hasn't been injured in a while. So I think it's uh I think it's gonna be a pretty dang exciting tour. Juanayuso is gonna be the uh the bat is the consummate villain, the bad boy. Uh Juan Ayuso, another young guy, is going to be a young Spaniard, is uh the the leader of the Letal Trek team. Of course, we've got Quentin Simmons on that Letal Trek team too, who'll win the red, white, and blue. I wonder if uh Jonathan Milan will be Yeah, Jonathan Milan, who won the the uh the triclamino, the Italian national colors. He's the Italian national champion. He won that last weekend.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:47

Oh, nice. Yeah. I saw that he I saw the top of his head without his cap.

SPEAKER_00 1:05:53

I just I noticed the same photo.

SPEAKER_04 1:05:55

I I was like, ooh, he's even hotter. He's gonna look like Jason Statha. So who was that who was that writer who crashed at the finish line when they were raising their arms for their victory?

SPEAKER_00 1:06:10

That was a big that was that was a big deal. We did talk about him. It was weeks ago. We did talk about him.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:15

Yeah, that was funny.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:16

He crashed and crossed the line on the ground.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:18

On the ground before before the chasers. That's why he was.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:22

He may be there. Yeah, he may be at the tour.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:24

I thought that was Paul success, but it wasn't.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:27

No, no, no. So, you know, now also, if we want to talk a more about the French takeover of the USA. Our 250th anniversary of being a country, and France wants to start the Tour de France on July 4th.

SPEAKER_03 1:06:44

Oh.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:46

You know? What are they trying to tell us? Next thing you know, they're gonna come back and load the Statue of Liberty on a boat and take it back.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:54

That would be okay by me.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:56

You know?

SPEAKER_04 1:06:57

Actually, I really like that too.

SPEAKER_00 1:06:58

Yeah, Lady Liberty.

SPEAKER_04 1:06:59

Yeah, she's cute. She can stay.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:02

But you know, yeah, it's just uh They take our constitution first. Right.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:07

They took our constitution, they took it from us. They upstage us on the beheadings of their heads of state. And now I guess you could call them headless of states. Oh man. Goodbye, Marie Antoinette. And uh like what else are they gonna beat us on? You know what I'm saying? They're taking our tour divide records. It's basically gonna take French fries next from us.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:34

This is all on the shoulders of a young Quinn Simmons. I don't know. So hopefully Quinn Simmons. Well, you know, the uh the the opening stage of the tour this year it happens in Bartholomew.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:50

It is a team time.

SPEAKER_00 1:07:51

So I guess it's more of Spain taking our holiday, isn't it? I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 1:07:56

It's okay. The only thing I celebrate on the 4th of July is Cheech's birthday.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:02

Cheech of Crustbikes.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:03

Cheech of Crustbikes. The CEO.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:06

Born on the 4th of July.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:07

Yeah. So everyone's darling. So Happy birthday soon, Cheek. I miss you so much. She doesn't listen to this.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:14

No. Definitely not this far into it if she does. So opening stage is the team time trial. Tade's team is incredibly strong, but there are a lot of other strong teams out there, but we're most people are expecting Tate to be in the yellow jersey after day one. Yeah. Uh the team time trial, I think, interestingly enough, this year is that you're not counted like in years past, you had you're the last person on your team to cross the finish line. That was the time that the whole team would get. But now it's all individual.

SPEAKER_03 1:08:42

So that's kind of cool.

SPEAKER_00 1:08:44

You can, you know, you could you can I don't know if you have to finish with your entire team intact. I think your whole team definitely has to finish. I don't know how that works, but you're gonna have to watch to find out. I think that's pretty much it. We're at one hour, 11 minutes here, sweetie.

SPEAKER_04 1:08:58

Yeah, that's really good.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:00

Um so sure we missed something. I think it's gonna be fun to have like Patrick as a guest during the tour.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:06

Oh, I would love to have that.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:07

Um so maybe we'll maybe we'll maybe we'll call him.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:10

Patrick Ultra Tradition of he's the other half of Ultra Dynamico.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:15

Oh, there was that great article up about his bike builds on the Radivist last week. I forgot to shout that out.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:20

So good.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:20

So check out Patrick's bikes and his bike building mentality on the Radivist last from last week.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:26

Patrick does make uh build really, really awesome bikes. I think I'm more aligned with like the Patrick side of things because he uses modern components and like he's not as what he might call you is like grandpa.

SPEAKER_00 1:09:43

He just doesn't ride Rivendells. As he like I do, I'm more holistic in my appreciation for cycling, and he's much more pigeon-holed.

SPEAKER_04 1:09:53

If you're the more holistic, then I think holistic needs a new definition.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:00

Because oh, all right, folks. I really hope you've enjoyed this morning with us.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:10

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:10

Where even if it reaches you in the afternoon, I hope it feels like a fresh spring morning, actually summer morning. Like you just got out of the shower, some Irish Spring.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:22

Oh.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:30

Ron I.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:31

So Yeah, I just hope everyone has enjoyed this episode of Altbike Now. And we are gonna catch you next week. We're gonna have plenty of tour stuff to talk about then.

SPEAKER_01 1:10:41

Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:42

Uh and whatever else may happen between now and then in the world of Altbike. Folks, this is Ronnie Romance.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:50

This is Arya Summertime.

SPEAKER_00 1:10:52

Hope you have a great week.

SPEAKER_04 1:10:55

Chow, ciao.

SPEAKER_02 1:10:56

Or board.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:17

I don't know.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:19

I mean, if that's a talent. Okay, but it's a normal vibe.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:26

Oh, yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_04 1:11:27

Audios.

SPEAKER_00 1:11:28

Audios.