August 2, 2025 • 39 mins
Welcome to the Tour de France Femmes Podcast, from the producers of "The Time-Crunched Cyclist Podcast"
CTS publishes daily Tour de France Femmes podcasts with Coaches Adam Pulford and Renee Eastman. They recap the stages, but the unique aspect of these podcasts will be coaching insights about how athletes prepare for the demands showcased in that day's stage.
STAGE 8 PODCAST OVERVIEW
Stage 8 of the 2025 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift was the Queen Stage, meaning the hardest of them all. There was a big shakeup on the leaderboard, which Coaches Renee Eastman and Adam Pulford discuss. They also talk about coaching athletes on descending skills and the impact of a woman's menstrual cycle on performance and perception of effort.
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Co-Host: Renee Eastman
Renee Eastman is a CTS Premier Level Coach and has been coaching with the company for more than 20 years. She has been a professional bike fitter for 15 years and was one of the first fitters to use the Retül bike fit system. She has a master's degree in exercise science, has worked for USA Cycling, and is a 6-time Masters National Champion.
Renee Eastman bio: https://trainright.com/coaches/renee-eastman/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/renee.eastman/
HOST
Adam Pulford has been a CTS Coach for nearly two decades and holds a B.S. in Exercise Physiology. He's participated in and coached hundreds of athletes for endurance events all around the world.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome back Time Crunch fans, tdff fans and
welcome back to my co-host,Coach Rene Eastman.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Adam, great to see you.
Good morning everybody.
We got a great stage to talkabout.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
We do.
Indeed, I'm your host, coachAdam Pulford, and yeah, as you
know, this whole week we'retalking Tour de France from AVEC
Zwift, where Rene is ourspecialist on recapping
everything about the stage.
Then we talk about specificcoaching elements that we kind
(00:33):
of determine are importantthroughout the stage, whether
it's climbing, descending,women's physiology, fueling or
something like that.
So here we are at stage eight,Renee, let's just get right into
the recap.
What did you see today?
What did you write down?
What stood out to you the most?
Speaker 2 (00:47):
A lot.
This was the Queen stage, asyou remember.
That means it's the bigshowdown, the hardest mountain
stage.
It was 111 kilometers with3,500 meters of climbing.
In American, that is 11,000feet of climbing over 70 miles.
(01:08):
Adam, I've done some hard ridesbefore.
Plenty of 10,000 feet climbingdays, but not over that in 70
miles.
So tough, tough day when towatch Alert, if you guys just
want to kind of get to the bestpart, watch the last climb.
The cold little metal landstarts with 18 kilometers to go.
(01:30):
It's about an hour of the race.
It's uh, but that's when allthe action happens.
Um, another little tip or hinton today.
If you're watching Peacock,you're going to be like it
sounds different today.
We had Phil Liggett and MeganGarnier on the commentary today
(01:51):
and if you guys are wonderinglike who is that lady?
Well, she's an American retiredbadass bike racer.
She won the Giro back in 2016.
So she knows what she's talkingabout.
Let's get on with it, becausewe have a lot to talk about with
today's stage.
We might go on and on, becauseit was really dramatic and lots
(02:14):
of interesting stuff happened.
The stage kicked off on a climb, a 13-kilometer climb, and
that's when the break formed.
It was another big break about15 riders.
We hadise shabby up therechasing after the polka dots, uh
.
Mavis squibbin, uh, out thereagain, uh.
And ruth edwards too.
(02:36):
Both of those guys didn't haveenough yesterday in the break.
Um, about halfway through thestage, kim la courte crashed on
a descent.
I think she was just tired orsomething.
I mean, it wasn't likesomething bad happened, she just
kind of took a bad line there.
(02:56):
She was leading the peloton yeah, it took a little bit of a
chase to catch back on, but shedid make it back on well before
the big climb of the day started, with 18 kilometers to go, the
cold of Manila, and by thatpoint the break still had a gap
of a couple of minutes and thefield was whittled down to about
(03:22):
14 riders, including all the GCfavorites was whittled down to
about 14 riders, including allthe GC favorites.
So once we were on the climb,things started to happen.
Surprising to me, anna VanderBreggen dropped early.
She was the first GC hopeful toget dropped about 14 kilometers
to go.
Kind of surprising because EstyWorks was doing a lot of work
(03:48):
today.
Then, with 11 kilometers to go,my pick of the day, sarah
Gigante, starts going for it.
It was clear to me that the AGinsurance plan of the day was
for Sarah.
I saw Kim LaCourte doing alittle bit of work, a little bit
of pulling, early in the raceand then, once I got on the
(04:09):
climb, kim was doing a lot ofpacing to set up Sarah.
So it was never her intentionto hold on to yellow today.
And when Kim LaCourte got tired, pulled off, that's when Sarah
went and that's when it allstarted going and Pauline
(04:34):
Perron-Perot, pfp.
She bridged up to Sarah and thetwo of them left Demi and
Cassia behind.
It was a small group by then.
It was Demi and Cassia.
Pollyanna Rutgers Cabal was upthere and the Polish writer from
(04:58):
UAE, dominika.
I am not even going to try tosay her last name, nika.
I am not even going to try tosay her last name.
Those Polish names are too hardfor my American tongue.
We had a lot of satellite ridersup in the break today.
We talked about that yesterday,putting a rider up ahead to
(05:18):
help out, and we saw a lot ofthat on the climb.
Justine DeGagara from AGInsurance was up there to help
Sarah.
Yara Kasterlein was up there tohelp Roy Arkers.
I don't think they everconnected, though.
Marion Brunel was up there.
She paced Pauline for a littlebit.
Fdj had Vita Music up in thebreak and she was pacing Demi
(05:43):
for a little while.
Music up in the break and shewas pacing Demi for a little
while.
And actually Squibben was upthere helping her teammate from
UAE.
So we saw a lot of thatteamwork today.
Ultimately, bfp, she drops SarahGigante with about eight and a
half kilometers to go.
She didn't attack, she justrode her off her wheel, which
(06:07):
I'm blown by that, just blownaway by the climbing performance
.
I knew she was going to beclimbing well this race.
I didn't expect what I sawbecause, spoiler alert Paulina
Ferran Farro won the stage, tookthe jersey, but but you know,
as she was going with eight anda half k to go, there were still
(06:29):
a couple of breakaway riders upthere knee fisher black and
your casterline.
She caught them with 6k to go.
She dropped fisher black withabout 5k to go and just went on
to solo win.
Um, I said that it was going tobe minutes today and it was PFP
(06:50):
wins.
Sergio Gonti was second, 145back, the group behind, with
Demi and Cassia.
They had a little bit of ashakeup in the last kilometer.
They had a little bit of ashakeup in the last kilometer.
(07:24):
Demi accelerated away from themto gain a few seconds on Cassia
, can't forget knee fissureplaque held on for third.
Demi was actually fourth, 3.03behind PFP, and she was.
Yara Kasperlein was in fifth.
She was actually, you know,from the break, and right behind
Demi and Yara Kasperlein wereKerbal and the UAE rider and
Cassia right behind them.
Those three were about 320 down.
So GC is totally blown up.
(07:47):
Now let's see PFP in yellowSarah Gigante in second 237.
Back Follering in third 318.
Nia Adoma in fourth 340.
Kerr Ball up in fifth.340.
Kerbal up in 5th great ride byher at 4.11.
(08:10):
I know that you have a realattachment for invested in that
EF Oatley rider, kerbal AJ'steammate.
I'm sure there will be somecelebration tonight because if
she stays in 5th that's a hugeaccomplishment for the team.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Yeah big accomplishment.
Yes, like kind of a satelliteuh person attached to the team,
but also for me personally, pfp,seeing her in yellow, uh, at
this point, uh, personally I'mvery excited for that.
She's been a hero of of minefor the yellow jersey.
We don't need to get super intoit.
(09:12):
I did a podcast a few weeks agotalking about how, when that
happened in the men's race andsome of the unwritten rules, the
culture and everything aroundthat.
But I'll just say this likeanybody who races bikes knows
that crashing is a thing andwe're going to get into
descending in how, being on thelimit mentally and physically,
what that means, how that canhappen.
(09:33):
But anytime you crash,hopefully you don't pull anybody
down with you.
Her crash was like kind of likeminor, sure A mistake, but like
I've crashed similar in thatway.
She got up and got going, buton the broadcast and also I'd
say watch.
I don't know.
Do you know when that happened,renee?
Speaker 2 (09:53):
It was halfway through.
We're at 60K to go, yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
So listen to the commentary.
I think they did a really goodjob of explaining why they
didn't wait for the yellowjersey, how a crash like that
can can happen.
But I'm sure this is going toblow up on social media, um in
some form or fashion.
But it's also kind of a launchpoint to talk about some of the
descending once.
Once we do um and we can talkabout that now, renee.
Or we can talk about my girl,pfp, and how good she is of
(10:21):
setting a goal at some point andthen achieving it either next
year or years down the road,because it's, it's incredible
she.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
She is a master at that, adam.
She's got 13 worldchampionships.
Uh, she's won the olympics.
She is very, very good atshowing up on time, in form and
completely ready for her goal.
And Caroline Manet CoachCaroline Manet, french
(10:51):
cyclocross superstar, our coachand friend, she knows Pauline,
she's French, raced against herJust said that she has such
respect for Pauline, for whatshe can do, um to show you how
committed she was to gettingready for this tour.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
She bought a house in andorra this year and she said
that it was specifically so shecould go train at altitude on
long climbs, and I have neverseen her climb like this no uh,
amazing I mean like this styleof riding where she's just so
freaking strong and she ridesaway from fields she's been able
(11:31):
to do that for a while, but,like mountain bike, terrain
different than this and I'd sayuh, agree with you.
Like she rode away in the uh.
Well, a couple times in a worldchampionship, but also in the
olympics, where it was just likeno super hard attack, but just
like and and, just riding awayfrom the group.
That's what she did today, butlike in a massive way on a huge
(11:52):
climb, and I was just, I mean, Iwas like whoa yeah, that's.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
That kind of climbing is completely different than
mountain bike climbing.
Uh, an hour long at FTP versushow long her mountain bike
climbs on cross-country courses.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Five minutes is long.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Yeah, and that's her training in a very specific way.
We won't go into all thatdetail today.
I think a subject that hascertainly been talked about and
I'm sure it's going to be talkedabout more.
You know it's clear that she'slost some weight from the spring
(12:33):
, you know.
And to climb in the bigmountains, you know.
You see it in the men's race aswell.
Ladies and men they get as leanas possible to perform their
best in the mountains,especially when they're GC
riders.
But she's got a team behind her.
She has been a professional fora long time.
(12:54):
I've seen her show up to otherperformances.
You know, lean and mean andready to go.
She doesn't stay that way allyear and I think that's
something for maybe the amateurrider looking at the pros at
their very best and she looksvery, very small now.
But that it's not healthy thatshe stays that way all year
(13:21):
round, that she's doing itthrough diet.
She's fueling her trainingappropriately.
If she was just losing weightand not eating enough, she
wouldn't be so strong now.
So I just wanted to touch onthat a little bit because I know
some people end up talkingabout it, noticing it.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Yeah, and I think it's really important to bring
up is that this is not likehistorically looking back on it.
She doesn't stay that way.
She compartmentalizes well interms of having a goal, sticking
to it, doing whatever it takesto do that, and then kind of
balancing out over time.
And I think even with ridersthat I coach if I know that they
can handle that there isfunctional weight loss or weight
(14:00):
gain, depending on what thegoal of the competition is
anaerobic versus aerobic, versusgc versus climbing, all this
kind of stuff and we'll put onor take off weight in order to
do that, so long as you canhandle it in the long run and
keep it in balance.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
So well, the uh kind of famously the one of the stars
of the men's race of the lastcouple years epperpper Hampson,
I think, is his name he notablygained reportedly 20 kilos that
he was trying to get super,super skinny climber and he
wasn't riding well.
And then he puts on 20 kilosand he's winning stages and
(14:38):
crushing it at the tour.
So it's riders finding theirbest performance weight.
You don't have to look acertain way to perform well,
exactly, and that's a reallygood example.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
And he was just saying like I didn't ride well
when I was that low right andJonas put on weight I think it
was something like five or sixpounds and he looked strong.
He looked better.
I think Todd is just head overheels right now with um his
development, but you know I'mstill second.
So anyway, um, yeah, it's verygood to mention Um, but don't
(15:14):
give yourself an eating disorderto uh, go in big races.
That's our main talking point.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Uh, I know we want to talk downhills today.
We've been talking aboutdownhills all week Like, oh,
these amazing descenders, and weget super psyched because it's
kind of exciting.
You know, super psyched.
You know I can't descend likethat, so I admire those who can.
And in the women's race I thinkit's a little bit more
(15:42):
highlighted because there's alittle more disparity in the
field that you have Kerbal,kasia and some others who are
just wicked dissenters, very,very skilled, and then you have
people like Sarah Gigantestruggles a little bit more.
So you, tactically they usedissents a little bit more.
(16:03):
Then in the men's race, in themen's race you see a little bit
more level playing field on theskill side of things.
And we talked yesterday aboutSarah Gigante working on her
descending.
You mentioned people hiringcoaches.
You know to work on descending,which is part of the game.
(16:24):
If you want to be competitiveat this level, it's part of the
game.
If you want to be competitiveat this level, it's part of the
game if you want to becompetitive on your local group
ride.
I've gotten dropped on plenty ofdownhills on the group ride.
I want to circle back toyesterday too, because I
rewatched some of the coverageand Justine Gagera, sarah
(16:45):
Gigante's teammate, was reallyhelping her on that one descent,
and Gagarin, Sarah Gigante'steammate, was really helping her
on that one descent.
And when I was rewatching thecoverage it was so funny because
at times Justine was behind heryelling at her like get off the
brakes.
And Sarah had an interviewafter the race that she thanked
Justine, but she was talkingabout how Justine was shouting
(17:06):
at her.
And then other times Justinewould go front to lead her and I
was just kind of curious Adam,how do you coach people to get
better at descending when you'relive?
Speaker 1 (17:21):
in person.
It's a great question and Ithink, Renee, let's put in the
show notes that Instagram reelthat you sent me, because the
way that they did that, theyinterviewed Sarah Gigante and
then her teammate to show whatwas happening and how her
teammate was coaching her outthere on the road.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
Yeah, I lost some time at the end, but thanks to
my teammate Justine.
Again, like yesterday, she waslike an absolute superstar, oh.
I was the whole downhillscreaming to her and coaching
come on, don't break, pull backyeah, I didn't drop for quite a
(17:57):
while, but I could hear heralways yelling at me like, come
on, don't break, don't break,pedal, pedal, pedal doing well,
come on Sarah, come on Sarah.
Like I was going flat out, shewas just chatting away.
So, yeah, that was reallymotivating, and then anytime a
gap did open, she was able toclose it.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
Yeah, coaching her, coaching her.
But yeah, in the last part.
Speaker 4 (18:16):
And yeah, I regret taking the left on the second
roundabout.
I knew I had to go right, butin the moment I just chose the
wrong way.
And yeah, I got gapped, but itcould have been minutes.
So, yeah, I'm pretty happy withthat descent.
And so good, kim was able toget back to the group and finish
again in yellow.
So, yeah, an amazing day forthe team really they.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
She lost a bit of time, but I went all out and I
hope she didn't lose too muchtoday.
Now, tomorrow we go Madelonsummit finish, finish.
It's a big one.
You prefer the road finishingup there rather than down.
It suits you.
Speaker 4 (18:53):
Yeah, we'll see what happens.
We've still got Kim and Yellow,but maybe the teams will regret
not dropping me yesterday whenthey could have, hopefully.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
Yeah, the whole of Australia sees you as a hero now
.
So thank you, thanks, no, no,no, but it's because we so
believe in Sarah for the weekendand, yeah, we really believe
she can do something specialthis weekend, and so we needed
to reduce the time as much aspossible.
So it was my job, and with apleasure If there is something
(19:27):
big to come.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
Again, justine, and they pay again.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Being able to coach somebody on the bike from the
back to, you know, cue them incertain aspects of a descent or
corner or whatever.
I mean that's how it looks whenyou're at speed, trying to
refine at the very top end.
However, when I'm coachinganybody on descending and
cornering, you take it down tothe basics first, right, slow.
(19:55):
You look at the corners, allthis kind of stuff, but once
you're on the bike, yeah, yougot to cue them and you have to
cue them in the moment.
And it's the cue of thereminder of, hopefully you
started with the basics andbuilt up from there.
(20:15):
But even at that highest leveland I have, I've coached, um, I
mean former us nationalchampions and and, uh, mountain
bike champions and and I'vecoached them on the road for
descending in that way, becausethey've they've had to work on
it and really my end goal isalways like be smooth, because
smooth will be fast over timeand that's where I really want
to uh get a rider.
Usually they have at that level.
Anyway, they have the basicsfairly well done.
They just need confidence tokind of like build up from there
(20:37):
and then find that line.
But uh, yeah, I thinktactically we're going to see
this in the women's field moreand more, because the disparity
is is there.
You can see people ripping andmaking gaps and the GC riders
will need to shore that up.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
And back on Kim LaCourte's crash today.
We know she is a very gooddescender.
She brought back a 30 secondgap yesterday.
She's a former mountain biker.
She was taking risks yesterday,yesterday.
A quote from her yesterday Itried to kill myself on a few of
those hairpins was in her crash.
(21:14):
Today she wasn't like, it wasjust you know, the the pack
going along and it was a whoops.
Yeah, it was a whoops.
I I wonder if it's just likefatigue.
Maybe you know that you knowlapse of attention a little bit.
She got up, you know didn'tlook hurt.
(21:37):
I don't think it's why she gotdropped early.
I don't think she was reallygoing to be up there today.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
No, and just to touch on that real quick, because in
my older years now, I nowappreciate descending as much as
I used to appreciate climbing.
And so to be on the limit, totake a local, you know KOM on
the downhill, or or tointentionally in a race, try to,
like you know, blow somethingapart on the downhill.
(22:06):
Like you know, blow somethingapart on the downhill,
physically there's a, physicallyit's very hard, but mentally
it's very taxing.
And I would say, just like on aday where you're going to take
a QOM or a KOM, where you're allin on something, when you're
taking that on the downhill, oreven you're at the Tour de
France, fama, but Zwift andyou're trying to do that, I mean
(22:27):
physically and mentally andthey mentioned this on the
broadcast too is just like youcome up, you know you're racing
full tilt over a climb, you haveto ground yourself before you
hit that descent, breathing,relaxing, that kind of stuff.
And it's easy to make a mistakein that way and we'll see it.
I'm not going to put you knowwords in Kim's mouth, we'll see
(22:48):
it in some of the interviews,but like that's an honest
mistake, I've done it before.
It never feels good but, like Isaid, hopefully if you crash you
don't take anyone else out withyou.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Um, I've really enjoyed getting to be a little
bit more familiar with KimLaCourte.
This week.
Um, she's only been in the protour a couple of years, so you
know, first, last, first time Ireally noticed her was last year
, but in her interviews andeverything, I just she's a
straight shooter.
Yeah, and in one of herinterviews post-race interviews
(23:23):
this week, I believe it was thestage five that she won and took
the jersey back a little bit.
Oh, not a little bit.
She took it back.
That she won and took thejersey back a little bit oh, not
a little bit.
She took it back.
Um, she said just straight up Ididn't feel good.
Today I'm on my period, youknow, and I think it's great
that writers like her and demi'sanother one who are just like,
(23:47):
yeah, it's a thing, sometimes Ifeel bad people get on their
periods and it changes moods andphysical states than others.
You know, most often it's thesecond half of the cycle, as
you're getting to the you know,week ahead of when you have your
(24:39):
period, the luteal phase, youknow, athletes are like lower
energy, maybe bloated, notsleeping, great you know.
And then, once the hormoneschange, and you know, post uh
period, in the follicular phase,you know, that's usually when
women, if they have a trend orcrushing it, they feel great,
(25:03):
feel like a champ.
I'm one of those day after myperiod starts like like Hulk,
smash them Strava KOMs.
And just because somebody feelsbad doesn't mean that they're
going to perform bad.
I think there's a little bit ofpsychology behind it too,
(25:24):
especially for ladies.
If you let it get in your headoh, I'm bad today.
I feel bad.
Kim felt bad.
She won the stage, one of thevery few races I won here in
colorado.
I remember I felt so bad.
I was on my period.
I was like cramping and uh, therace was slow and I was just
(25:47):
focused on like how I wasfeeling and so I just attacked.
I like went off the front.
I figured if I'm suffering thisbad, I might as well just be
off the front suffering and kindof.
You know.
By that point I forgot about mycramps.
I was like my legs were hurtingand my lungs were hurting.
I did win the waist, though, sonice.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Well, I mean to that point.
I mean this is something I'venever experienced myself.
So I mean, take it for whatit's worth.
But coaching athletes like thisI've learned that over the
years is like feeling does notequal performance.
Right, and that's where whensomeone is on their period, it's
like, okay, well, let's justpush today, maybe we have
intervals or whatever.
Let's just push today and seewhat happens.
And sometimes we see, oh yeah,the performance doesn't change.
(26:35):
I feel bad, but the performancedoesn't.
Other times I've had riderswhere it's like let's just try
the intervals today and it'slike they get into number one
halfway through and they're like, nope, I'm out, go back home.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
So in understanding how you respond on those general
ways is for you, ladies, isreally important.
I encourage my athletes and Ido it myself, you know to track
and you know you could trackwith your wearable I've got my
Garmin watch or just trackingtraining peaks.
There are apps out there thatyou could track, but I'd like to
(27:13):
keep my stuff all in one placein training peaks.
It's just easier all in oneplace.
So, understanding how youperform and maybe if you are
that person who has thosefluctuations and feel it more
severely, that's something thatyou can try to work around.
Not plan your hardest workouts,uh.
(27:33):
Or you know, uh, give yourselfa little bit more grace, uh.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
You know, changing your fueling a little bit, uh,
during your period, um, uh, perthe per the tracking I I have
some athletes, um, that do agreat job with this uh, not only
communicating, onlycommunicating when they start
their period, but alsocommunicating when they think
they're going to start theperiod, and so we can either
(27:58):
move training around for that orkind of work the pre-race
routine accordingly for that.
But I think the just theplanning aspect of it is really
helpful, at least on thecoaching end of things and the
communication side of thingswith the athlete.
So I think that's really good.
So if anybody hasn't done thatand just using training peaks
(28:18):
with notes and metrics to dothat, that's great.
And then over time we have datapoints of when the period
started relative to theperformance metrics that we have
, and then we can kind of seetrends over time.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
Yeah, there's not a ton of information out there
starting to become talked abouta little bit more.
There was actually a greatepisode of the Real Science of
Sports podcast last week thatdid a whole like hour and a half
on the menstrual cycle andathletic performance.
(28:52):
That's a good, oh cool.
It's a good nerdy exercise fizzsport podcast anyway.
Uh, we should put a link in theshow notes, uh and send it to
me, coach renee, please.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
I'd like to I sure will.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Um, when I was, when I was an athlete and you know in
my youth I did struggle more Iwas affected pretty bad.
I think I called in sick a fewtimes, Adam, when I just felt
terrible.
And you know, some women usecontraceptives as a method of,
(29:29):
you know, controlling theircycle.
In the olden days when I wasracing, there was actually women
who were sometimes using oralcontraceptives to control when
they had their cycles, so they'dskip their little placebo pills
(29:50):
and not have their period inrace day.
But there's a little bit ofevidence that the oral
contraceptives can negativelyimpact performance and I'm not
here to tell anyone what to dofor their contraceptive choice.
I'm just giving this asinformation.
(30:10):
You've got to talk to yourdoctor about what's best for you
.
Stacey Sims is another big voicein talking about women's
physiology, exercise physiology.
She's got a great book outthere called Roar.
That's a really nice resource.
(30:31):
A little background on StaceySims.
She not only an exercisephysiologist and nutrition
expert, former racer she and Iwere racing at the same time.
I was in a few races with herand she actually worked with cts
for a while.
I had a.
I got to work with her on aproject with us field hockey.
(30:56):
We were doing some consulting,a lot of hydration stuff and a
little bit of coaching on thephysiology side.
So anyway, that's prettyinteresting.
But she's a really smart ladyand she knows her stuff.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
But one shout out to CTS one ofthe kind of coolest hires at
the time because really she wasa resident expert in kind of
everything.
But I remember just likelunchtime we would bring brown
bag lunch and sit in the ESC orECS, whatever down by the
strengths and conditioning roomat CTS and we would just have a
(31:32):
topic and that would be once aweek and we would learn, yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
Yeah, check out her socials because she puts out a
lot of good content on Instagramas well.
Um, so you know the things I'velearned, you know from from her
information and others you knowabout how oral contraceptives
could affect a performance isthat they alter, you know,
hormone fluctuations becausethey flatten out the estrogen
(31:58):
and progesterone and it couldimpact things like metabolism
and thermoregulation and maybe alittle bit of recovery and
muscle protein synthesis andpotentially blunt the body's
usual adaptations to trainingfor some athletes.
So Stacey recommends copperIUDs as a less impactful
(32:31):
solution for some ladies.
You know I use Mirena that hasa low dose of progesterone, so
it's not very significant andvery, from my understanding,
very little impact.
You know, I think Stacey goesfor the copper IUD just because
(32:52):
it has no hormones at all,because you know, on the
hormones, like I couldn't takethe pill or I tried to take the
pill and it I not.
On the performance side ofthings, I don't think I was
really racing at that point, itwas just made me crazy, like
moody.
Speaker 4 (33:11):
It made me moody.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
Anyway, I'm just saying that you have to talk to
your doctor.
You have to find out what worksfor you and what makes the most
sense.
I will say this Once I got theIUD, the Mirena game changer
Monthly symptoms, almost nil.
You don't usually get a periodwhen you're on Mirena.
(33:31):
That's a bonus, and it can stayin for five or seven years.
If you didn't know about itwhich I'm sure a lot of you
ladies did but it wasn't aroundwhen I was young.
It didn't come out until like2000.
And it really didn't getpopular in the US until 2010.
So I didn't even know about itin my key racing era, or else I
(33:55):
probably would have checked itout.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
Yeah, yeah, I would say a lot of my athletes, um, um
are using that now.
Uh, based on what I know, umseems to be working well, but
again, uh, it's individual talkto your doctor.
We are not medical experts, butthose are my observations.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
Yeah, and you know I'd encourage ladies out there
to talk to their coaches.
Even I forget to ask sometimes.
Last week I was with one of myathletes.
She was just like having a badweek and you know I finally
asked her like because Icouldn't figure out why she was
having such a bad week.
And you know we talked aboutperiods and things like that.
So you know, even I forget toask sometimes.
(34:40):
So you know, I think the justthe more we talk about it like
it's a regular just you know Igot a cold or I have my period
you know that just makes it alot less taboo.
I don't think it's really tabooanymore, but you know it's
still delicate.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
Yeah, it can be delicate, but I think it's taboo
in our society.
I hope it won't be into thefuture, but you know, having
podcasts in conversations likethis hopefully helps to get us
there.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
Adam, we've got one more stage left tomorrow, one
more.
And the top of the podium iswrapped up.
She's got almost three minuteson.
Sarah Gigante.
There is no mountaintop finishtomorrow.
Sarah Gigante, there is nomountaintop finish tomorrow.
(35:34):
It is 124 kilometers, about 77miles.
The big feature of the day isthe Jouplan.
It's 11 kilometer climb, 8%grade, but it comes in the
middle of the stage, so the raceis not over.
We just talked a bunch aboutdescending and Sarah Gigante is
a little.
(35:54):
She needs a little help on thedescents.
I could see teams like Demi's,like Cassia's, rip in the
descent of that and puttingSarah into jeopardy.
I mean like on GC, jeopardy,not danger.
So I that's a real possibility.
(36:16):
So you know you want to catchtomorrow's stage, you know.
But Pauline, she's got itlocked up.
I think.
And you know it's been 40 yearssince a French had a winner of
the Tour de France.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
Really, I didn't know that.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
Bernard Hinault in 85 .
Well see, you wouldn't remember, because I don't even know if
you were born yet.
Then.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
This is true, but fun facts of cycling history is
something I'd love to learnabout, and I just learned
something.
So thank you, renee.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
Last pro tip for tomorrow Another day of full
coverage coverage, but it startslater.
9, 15 eastern 9, 15.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
Yeah, okay, well, so who?
Uh?
So who are you identifying asyour pick for tomorrow?
Right?
Speaker 2 (37:05):
oh shoot, I forgot to make a pick.
Yeah, um breakaway breakaway,rather your girl squibbing oh,
she's.
No, she's tired.
My brain is fried.
I got, I got no one.
Capecky.
Capecky was doing some teamworktoday.
(37:26):
Oh, and speaking of teamworkand jerseys and things like that
and the race and stuff, itlooks like Weebus has the green
jersey locked up.
Yeah, it looks like Shabby hasthe polka dots locked up.
Ninkavika is still in white,but there's still plenty of good
racing tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (37:45):
Yeah, tons of good racing.
And you know what?
My pick is PFP, and I hope shedoes like a tate move.
Yeah, because you're, you'relike what?
Like tate, with the men's racethey basically neutralize it
because the the rain and it got,uh.
So basically they're like, okay, all the jerseys are now safe.
And tate was like screw it,let's go bike racing.
And he just went for it andpart of me wants pauline to do
(38:08):
that, just to just be like.
You know what?
Speaker 3 (38:11):
girls.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
Boss would be a great candidate for tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
You think so?
Huh, Not too medium-y,mountain-y for her.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
It depends on how hard they ride it.
I think they're going to ridethe descent hard.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
You know they could just tempo up the climb because
halfway through, but then to ripthe descent well and then you
know if they're ripping thedescent in bosses up there.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
She, she's very good at that she is all right we
shall see, and I look forward towatching some more awesome
racing.
So, uh, renee will leave itthere for today.
Hopefully a little shorterepisode so people can go out, uh
get away from us for a while,ride their bike on the weekend
and and uh come back fresh forthe final stage.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
Right on.
Speaker 1 (39:02):
See you tomorrow, thanks,
Welcome back Time Crunch fans, tdff fans and
welcome back to my co-host,Coach Rene Eastman.
Speaker 2 (00:08):
Adam, great to see you.
Good morning everybody.
We got a great stage to talkabout.
Speaker 1 (00:13):
We do.
Indeed, I'm your host, coachAdam Pulford, and yeah, as you
know, this whole week we'retalking Tour de France from AVEC
Zwift, where Rene is ourspecialist on recapping
everything about the stage.
Then we talk about specificcoaching elements that we kind
(00:33):
of determine are importantthroughout the stage, whether
it's climbing, descending,women's physiology, fueling or
something like that.
So here we are at stage eight,Renee, let's just get right into
the recap.
What did you see today?
What did you write down?
What stood out to you the most?
Speaker 2 (00:47):
A lot.
This was the Queen stage, asyou remember.
That means it's the bigshowdown, the hardest mountain
stage.
It was 111 kilometers with3,500 meters of climbing.
In American, that is 11,000feet of climbing over 70 miles.
(01:08):
Adam, I've done some hard ridesbefore.
Plenty of 10,000 feet climbingdays, but not over that in 70
miles.
So tough, tough day when towatch Alert, if you guys just
want to kind of get to the bestpart, watch the last climb.
The cold little metal landstarts with 18 kilometers to go.
(01:30):
It's about an hour of the race.
It's uh, but that's when allthe action happens.
Um, another little tip or hinton today.
If you're watching Peacock,you're going to be like it
sounds different today.
We had Phil Liggett and MeganGarnier on the commentary today
(01:51):
and if you guys are wonderinglike who is that lady?
Well, she's an American retiredbadass bike racer.
She won the Giro back in 2016.
So she knows what she's talkingabout.
Let's get on with it, becausewe have a lot to talk about with
today's stage.
We might go on and on, becauseit was really dramatic and lots
(02:14):
of interesting stuff happened.
The stage kicked off on a climb, a 13-kilometer climb, and
that's when the break formed.
It was another big break about15 riders.
We hadise shabby up therechasing after the polka dots, uh
.
Mavis squibbin, uh, out thereagain, uh.
And ruth edwards too.
(02:36):
Both of those guys didn't haveenough yesterday in the break.
Um, about halfway through thestage, kim la courte crashed on
a descent.
I think she was just tired orsomething.
I mean, it wasn't likesomething bad happened, she just
kind of took a bad line there.
(02:56):
She was leading the peloton yeah, it took a little bit of a
chase to catch back on, but shedid make it back on well before
the big climb of the day started, with 18 kilometers to go, the
cold of Manila, and by thatpoint the break still had a gap
of a couple of minutes and thefield was whittled down to about
(03:22):
14 riders, including all the GCfavorites was whittled down to
about 14 riders, including allthe GC favorites.
So once we were on the climb,things started to happen.
Surprising to me, anna VanderBreggen dropped early.
She was the first GC hopeful toget dropped about 14 kilometers
to go.
Kind of surprising because EstyWorks was doing a lot of work
(03:48):
today.
Then, with 11 kilometers to go,my pick of the day, sarah
Gigante, starts going for it.
It was clear to me that the AGinsurance plan of the day was
for Sarah.
I saw Kim LaCourte doing alittle bit of work, a little bit
of pulling, early in the raceand then, once I got on the
(04:09):
climb, kim was doing a lot ofpacing to set up Sarah.
So it was never her intentionto hold on to yellow today.
And when Kim LaCourte got tired, pulled off, that's when Sarah
went and that's when it allstarted going and Pauline
(04:34):
Perron-Perot, pfp.
She bridged up to Sarah and thetwo of them left Demi and
Cassia behind.
It was a small group by then.
It was Demi and Cassia.
Pollyanna Rutgers Cabal was upthere and the Polish writer from
(04:58):
UAE, dominika.
I am not even going to try tosay her last name, nika.
I am not even going to try tosay her last name.
Those Polish names are too hardfor my American tongue.
We had a lot of satellite ridersup in the break today.
We talked about that yesterday,putting a rider up ahead to
(05:18):
help out, and we saw a lot ofthat on the climb.
Justine DeGagara from AGInsurance was up there to help
Sarah.
Yara Kasterlein was up there tohelp Roy Arkers.
I don't think they everconnected, though.
Marion Brunel was up there.
She paced Pauline for a littlebit.
Fdj had Vita Music up in thebreak and she was pacing Demi
(05:43):
for a little while.
Music up in the break and shewas pacing Demi for a little
while.
And actually Squibben was upthere helping her teammate from
UAE.
So we saw a lot of thatteamwork today.
Ultimately, bfp, she drops SarahGigante with about eight and a
half kilometers to go.
She didn't attack, she justrode her off her wheel, which
(06:07):
I'm blown by that, just blownaway by the climbing performance
.
I knew she was going to beclimbing well this race.
I didn't expect what I sawbecause, spoiler alert Paulina
Ferran Farro won the stage, tookthe jersey, but but you know,
as she was going with eight anda half k to go, there were still
(06:29):
a couple of breakaway riders upthere knee fisher black and
your casterline.
She caught them with 6k to go.
She dropped fisher black withabout 5k to go and just went on
to solo win.
Um, I said that it was going tobe minutes today and it was PFP
(06:50):
wins.
Sergio Gonti was second, 145back, the group behind, with
Demi and Cassia.
They had a little bit of ashakeup in the last kilometer.
They had a little bit of ashakeup in the last kilometer.
(07:24):
Demi accelerated away from themto gain a few seconds on Cassia
, can't forget knee fissureplaque held on for third.
Demi was actually fourth, 3.03behind PFP, and she was.
Yara Kasperlein was in fifth.
She was actually, you know,from the break, and right behind
Demi and Yara Kasperlein wereKerbal and the UAE rider and
Cassia right behind them.
Those three were about 320 down.
So GC is totally blown up.
(07:47):
Now let's see PFP in yellowSarah Gigante in second 237.
Back Follering in third 318.
Nia Adoma in fourth 340.
Kerr Ball up in fifth.340.
Kerbal up in 5th great ride byher at 4.11.
(08:10):
I know that you have a realattachment for invested in that
EF Oatley rider, kerbal AJ'steammate.
I'm sure there will be somecelebration tonight because if
she stays in 5th that's a hugeaccomplishment for the team.
Speaker 1 (08:25):
Yeah big accomplishment.
Yes, like kind of a satelliteuh person attached to the team,
but also for me personally, pfp,seeing her in yellow, uh, at
this point, uh, personally I'mvery excited for that.
She's been a hero of of minefor the yellow jersey.
We don't need to get super intoit.
(09:12):
I did a podcast a few weeks agotalking about how, when that
happened in the men's race andsome of the unwritten rules, the
culture and everything aroundthat.
But I'll just say this likeanybody who races bikes knows
that crashing is a thing andwe're going to get into
descending in how, being on thelimit mentally and physically,
what that means, how that canhappen.
(09:33):
But anytime you crash,hopefully you don't pull anybody
down with you.
Her crash was like kind of likeminor, sure A mistake, but like
I've crashed similar in thatway.
She got up and got going, buton the broadcast and also I'd
say watch.
I don't know.
Do you know when that happened,renee?
Speaker 2 (09:53):
It was halfway through.
We're at 60K to go, yeah.
Speaker 1 (09:57):
So listen to the commentary.
I think they did a really goodjob of explaining why they
didn't wait for the yellowjersey, how a crash like that
can can happen.
But I'm sure this is going toblow up on social media, um in
some form or fashion.
But it's also kind of a launchpoint to talk about some of the
descending once.
Once we do um and we can talkabout that now, renee.
Or we can talk about my girl,pfp, and how good she is of
(10:21):
setting a goal at some point andthen achieving it either next
year or years down the road,because it's, it's incredible
she.
Speaker 2 (10:29):
She is a master at that, adam.
She's got 13 worldchampionships.
Uh, she's won the olympics.
She is very, very good atshowing up on time, in form and
completely ready for her goal.
And Caroline Manet CoachCaroline Manet, french
(10:51):
cyclocross superstar, our coachand friend, she knows Pauline,
she's French, raced against herJust said that she has such
respect for Pauline, for whatshe can do, um to show you how
committed she was to gettingready for this tour.
Speaker 1 (11:09):
She bought a house in andorra this year and she said
that it was specifically so shecould go train at altitude on
long climbs, and I have neverseen her climb like this no uh,
amazing I mean like this styleof riding where she's just so
freaking strong and she ridesaway from fields she's been able
(11:31):
to do that for a while, but,like mountain bike, terrain
different than this and I'd sayuh, agree with you.
Like she rode away in the uh.
Well, a couple times in a worldchampionship, but also in the
olympics, where it was just likeno super hard attack, but just
like and and, just riding awayfrom the group.
That's what she did today, butlike in a massive way on a huge
(11:52):
climb, and I was just, I mean, Iwas like whoa yeah, that's.
Speaker 2 (11:56):
That kind of climbing is completely different than
mountain bike climbing.
Uh, an hour long at FTP versushow long her mountain bike
climbs on cross-country courses.
Speaker 1 (12:10):
Five minutes is long.
Speaker 2 (12:12):
Yeah, and that's her training in a very specific way.
We won't go into all thatdetail today.
I think a subject that hascertainly been talked about and
I'm sure it's going to be talkedabout more.
You know it's clear that she'slost some weight from the spring
(12:33):
, you know.
And to climb in the bigmountains, you know.
You see it in the men's race aswell.
Ladies and men they get as leanas possible to perform their
best in the mountains,especially when they're GC
riders.
But she's got a team behind her.
She has been a professional fora long time.
(12:54):
I've seen her show up to otherperformances.
You know, lean and mean andready to go.
She doesn't stay that way allyear and I think that's
something for maybe the amateurrider looking at the pros at
their very best and she looksvery, very small now.
But that it's not healthy thatshe stays that way all year
(13:21):
round, that she's doing itthrough diet.
She's fueling her trainingappropriately.
If she was just losing weightand not eating enough, she
wouldn't be so strong now.
So I just wanted to touch onthat a little bit because I know
some people end up talkingabout it, noticing it.
Speaker 1 (13:37):
Yeah, and I think it's really important to bring
up is that this is not likehistorically looking back on it.
She doesn't stay that way.
She compartmentalizes well interms of having a goal, sticking
to it, doing whatever it takesto do that, and then kind of
balancing out over time.
And I think even with ridersthat I coach if I know that they
can handle that there isfunctional weight loss or weight
(14:00):
gain, depending on what thegoal of the competition is
anaerobic versus aerobic, versusgc versus climbing, all this
kind of stuff and we'll put onor take off weight in order to
do that, so long as you canhandle it in the long run and
keep it in balance.
Speaker 2 (14:14):
So well, the uh kind of famously the one of the stars
of the men's race of the lastcouple years epperpper Hampson,
I think, is his name he notablygained reportedly 20 kilos that
he was trying to get super,super skinny climber and he
wasn't riding well.
And then he puts on 20 kilosand he's winning stages and
(14:38):
crushing it at the tour.
So it's riders finding theirbest performance weight.
You don't have to look acertain way to perform well,
exactly, and that's a reallygood example.
Speaker 1 (14:53):
And he was just saying like I didn't ride well
when I was that low right andJonas put on weight I think it
was something like five or sixpounds and he looked strong.
He looked better.
I think Todd is just head overheels right now with um his
development, but you know I'mstill second.
So anyway, um, yeah, it's verygood to mention Um, but don't
(15:14):
give yourself an eating disorderto uh, go in big races.
That's our main talking point.
Speaker 2 (15:21):
Uh, I know we want to talk downhills today.
We've been talking aboutdownhills all week Like, oh,
these amazing descenders, and weget super psyched because it's
kind of exciting.
You know, super psyched.
You know I can't descend likethat, so I admire those who can.
And in the women's race I thinkit's a little bit more
(15:42):
highlighted because there's alittle more disparity in the
field that you have Kerbal,kasia and some others who are
just wicked dissenters, very,very skilled, and then you have
people like Sarah Gigantestruggles a little bit more.
So you, tactically they usedissents a little bit more.
(16:03):
Then in the men's race, in themen's race you see a little bit
more level playing field on theskill side of things.
And we talked yesterday aboutSarah Gigante working on her
descending.
You mentioned people hiringcoaches.
You know to work on descending,which is part of the game.
(16:24):
If you want to be competitiveat this level, it's part of the
game.
If you want to be competitiveat this level, it's part of the
game if you want to becompetitive on your local group
ride.
I've gotten dropped on plenty ofdownhills on the group ride.
I want to circle back toyesterday too, because I
rewatched some of the coverageand Justine Gagera, sarah
(16:45):
Gigante's teammate, was reallyhelping her on that one descent,
and Gagarin, Sarah Gigante'steammate, was really helping her
on that one descent.
And when I was rewatching thecoverage it was so funny because
at times Justine was behind heryelling at her like get off the
brakes.
And Sarah had an interviewafter the race that she thanked
Justine, but she was talkingabout how Justine was shouting
(17:06):
at her.
And then other times Justinewould go front to lead her and I
was just kind of curious Adam,how do you coach people to get
better at descending when you'relive?
Speaker 1 (17:21):
in person.
It's a great question and Ithink, Renee, let's put in the
show notes that Instagram reelthat you sent me, because the
way that they did that, theyinterviewed Sarah Gigante and
then her teammate to show whatwas happening and how her
teammate was coaching her outthere on the road.
Speaker 4 (17:37):
Yeah, I lost some time at the end, but thanks to
my teammate Justine.
Again, like yesterday, she waslike an absolute superstar, oh.
I was the whole downhillscreaming to her and coaching
come on, don't break, pull backyeah, I didn't drop for quite a
(17:57):
while, but I could hear heralways yelling at me like, come
on, don't break, don't break,pedal, pedal, pedal doing well,
come on Sarah, come on Sarah.
Like I was going flat out, shewas just chatting away.
So, yeah, that was reallymotivating, and then anytime a
gap did open, she was able toclose it.
Speaker 3 (18:11):
Yeah, coaching her, coaching her.
But yeah, in the last part.
Speaker 4 (18:16):
And yeah, I regret taking the left on the second
roundabout.
I knew I had to go right, butin the moment I just chose the
wrong way.
And yeah, I got gapped, but itcould have been minutes.
So, yeah, I'm pretty happy withthat descent.
And so good, kim was able toget back to the group and finish
again in yellow.
So, yeah, an amazing day forthe team really they.
Speaker 3 (18:39):
She lost a bit of time, but I went all out and I
hope she didn't lose too muchtoday.
Now, tomorrow we go Madelonsummit finish, finish.
It's a big one.
You prefer the road finishingup there rather than down.
It suits you.
Speaker 4 (18:53):
Yeah, we'll see what happens.
We've still got Kim and Yellow,but maybe the teams will regret
not dropping me yesterday whenthey could have, hopefully.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
Yeah, the whole of Australia sees you as a hero now
.
So thank you, thanks, no, no,no, but it's because we so
believe in Sarah for the weekendand, yeah, we really believe
she can do something specialthis weekend, and so we needed
to reduce the time as much aspossible.
So it was my job, and with apleasure If there is something
(19:27):
big to come.
Speaker 4 (19:29):
Again, justine, and they pay again.
Speaker 1 (19:33):
Being able to coach somebody on the bike from the
back to, you know, cue them incertain aspects of a descent or
corner or whatever.
I mean that's how it looks whenyou're at speed, trying to
refine at the very top end.
However, when I'm coachinganybody on descending and
cornering, you take it down tothe basics first, right, slow.
(19:55):
You look at the corners, allthis kind of stuff, but once
you're on the bike, yeah, yougot to cue them and you have to
cue them in the moment.
And it's the cue of thereminder of, hopefully you
started with the basics andbuilt up from there.
(20:15):
But even at that highest leveland I have, I've coached, um, I
mean former us nationalchampions and and, uh, mountain
bike champions and and I'vecoached them on the road for
descending in that way, becausethey've they've had to work on
it and really my end goal isalways like be smooth, because
smooth will be fast over timeand that's where I really want
to uh get a rider.
Usually they have at that level.
Anyway, they have the basicsfairly well done.
They just need confidence tokind of like build up from there
(20:37):
and then find that line.
But uh, yeah, I thinktactically we're going to see
this in the women's field moreand more, because the disparity
is is there.
You can see people ripping andmaking gaps and the GC riders
will need to shore that up.
Speaker 2 (20:53):
And back on Kim LaCourte's crash today.
We know she is a very gooddescender.
She brought back a 30 secondgap yesterday.
She's a former mountain biker.
She was taking risks yesterday,yesterday.
A quote from her yesterday Itried to kill myself on a few of
those hairpins was in her crash.
(21:14):
Today she wasn't like, it wasjust you know, the the pack
going along and it was a whoops.
Yeah, it was a whoops.
I I wonder if it's just likefatigue.
Maybe you know that you knowlapse of attention a little bit.
She got up, you know didn'tlook hurt.
(21:37):
I don't think it's why she gotdropped early.
I don't think she was reallygoing to be up there today.
Speaker 1 (21:44):
No, and just to touch on that real quick, because in
my older years now, I nowappreciate descending as much as
I used to appreciate climbing.
And so to be on the limit, totake a local, you know KOM on
the downhill, or or tointentionally in a race, try to,
like you know, blow somethingapart on the downhill.
(22:06):
Like you know, blow somethingapart on the downhill,
physically there's a, physicallyit's very hard, but mentally
it's very taxing.
And I would say, just like on aday where you're going to take
a QOM or a KOM, where you're allin on something, when you're
taking that on the downhill, oreven you're at the Tour de
France, fama, but Zwift andyou're trying to do that, I mean
(22:27):
physically and mentally andthey mentioned this on the
broadcast too is just like youcome up, you know you're racing
full tilt over a climb, you haveto ground yourself before you
hit that descent, breathing,relaxing, that kind of stuff.
And it's easy to make a mistakein that way and we'll see it.
I'm not going to put you knowwords in Kim's mouth, we'll see
(22:48):
it in some of the interviews,but like that's an honest
mistake, I've done it before.
It never feels good but, like Isaid, hopefully if you crash you
don't take anyone else out withyou.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
Um, I've really enjoyed getting to be a little
bit more familiar with KimLaCourte.
This week.
Um, she's only been in the protour a couple of years, so you
know, first, last, first time Ireally noticed her was last year
, but in her interviews andeverything, I just she's a
straight shooter.
Yeah, and in one of herinterviews post-race interviews
(23:23):
this week, I believe it was thestage five that she won and took
the jersey back a little bit.
Oh, not a little bit.
She took it back.
That she won and took thejersey back a little bit oh, not
a little bit.
She took it back.
Um, she said just straight up Ididn't feel good.
Today I'm on my period, youknow, and I think it's great
that writers like her and demi'sanother one who are just like,
(23:47):
yeah, it's a thing, sometimes Ifeel bad people get on their
periods and it changes moods andphysical states than others.
You know, most often it's thesecond half of the cycle, as
you're getting to the you know,week ahead of when you have your
(24:39):
period, the luteal phase, youknow, athletes are like lower
energy, maybe bloated, notsleeping, great you know.
And then, once the hormoneschange, and you know, post uh
period, in the follicular phase,you know, that's usually when
women, if they have a trend orcrushing it, they feel great,
(25:03):
feel like a champ.
I'm one of those day after myperiod starts like like Hulk,
smash them Strava KOMs.
And just because somebody feelsbad doesn't mean that they're
going to perform bad.
I think there's a little bit ofpsychology behind it too,
(25:24):
especially for ladies.
If you let it get in your headoh, I'm bad today.
I feel bad.
Kim felt bad.
She won the stage, one of thevery few races I won here in
colorado.
I remember I felt so bad.
I was on my period.
I was like cramping and uh, therace was slow and I was just
(25:47):
focused on like how I wasfeeling and so I just attacked.
I like went off the front.
I figured if I'm suffering thisbad, I might as well just be
off the front suffering and kindof.
You know.
By that point I forgot about mycramps.
I was like my legs were hurtingand my lungs were hurting.
I did win the waist, though, sonice.
Speaker 1 (26:12):
Well, I mean to that point.
I mean this is something I'venever experienced myself.
So I mean, take it for whatit's worth.
But coaching athletes like thisI've learned that over the
years is like feeling does notequal performance.
Right, and that's where whensomeone is on their period, it's
like, okay, well, let's justpush today, maybe we have
intervals or whatever.
Let's just push today and seewhat happens.
And sometimes we see, oh yeah,the performance doesn't change.
(26:35):
I feel bad, but the performancedoesn't.
Other times I've had riderswhere it's like let's just try
the intervals today and it'slike they get into number one
halfway through and they're like, nope, I'm out, go back home.
Speaker 2 (26:47):
So in understanding how you respond on those general
ways is for you, ladies, isreally important.
I encourage my athletes and Ido it myself, you know to track
and you know you could trackwith your wearable I've got my
Garmin watch or just trackingtraining peaks.
There are apps out there thatyou could track, but I'd like to
(27:13):
keep my stuff all in one placein training peaks.
It's just easier all in oneplace.
So, understanding how youperform and maybe if you are
that person who has thosefluctuations and feel it more
severely, that's something thatyou can try to work around.
Not plan your hardest workouts,uh.
(27:33):
Or you know, uh, give yourselfa little bit more grace, uh.
Speaker 1 (27:38):
You know, changing your fueling a little bit, uh,
during your period, um, uh, perthe per the tracking I I have
some athletes, um, that do agreat job with this uh, not only
communicating, onlycommunicating when they start
their period, but alsocommunicating when they think
they're going to start theperiod, and so we can either
(27:58):
move training around for that orkind of work the pre-race
routine accordingly for that.
But I think the just theplanning aspect of it is really
helpful, at least on thecoaching end of things and the
communication side of thingswith the athlete.
So I think that's really good.
So if anybody hasn't done thatand just using training peaks
(28:18):
with notes and metrics to dothat, that's great.
And then over time we have datapoints of when the period
started relative to theperformance metrics that we have
, and then we can kind of seetrends over time.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
Yeah, there's not a ton of information out there
starting to become talked abouta little bit more.
There was actually a greatepisode of the Real Science of
Sports podcast last week thatdid a whole like hour and a half
on the menstrual cycle andathletic performance.
(28:52):
That's a good, oh cool.
It's a good nerdy exercise fizzsport podcast anyway.
Uh, we should put a link in theshow notes, uh and send it to
me, coach renee, please.
Speaker 1 (29:03):
I'd like to I sure will.
Speaker 2 (29:06):
Um, when I was, when I was an athlete and you know in
my youth I did struggle more Iwas affected pretty bad.
I think I called in sick a fewtimes, Adam, when I just felt
terrible.
And you know, some women usecontraceptives as a method of,
(29:29):
you know, controlling theircycle.
In the olden days when I wasracing, there was actually women
who were sometimes using oralcontraceptives to control when
they had their cycles, so they'dskip their little placebo pills
(29:50):
and not have their period inrace day.
But there's a little bit ofevidence that the oral
contraceptives can negativelyimpact performance and I'm not
here to tell anyone what to dofor their contraceptive choice.
I'm just giving this asinformation.
(30:10):
You've got to talk to yourdoctor about what's best for you
.
Stacey Sims is another big voicein talking about women's
physiology, exercise physiology.
She's got a great book outthere called Roar.
That's a really nice resource.
(30:31):
A little background on StaceySims.
She not only an exercisephysiologist and nutrition
expert, former racer she and Iwere racing at the same time.
I was in a few races with herand she actually worked with cts
for a while.
I had a.
I got to work with her on aproject with us field hockey.
(30:56):
We were doing some consulting,a lot of hydration stuff and a
little bit of coaching on thephysiology side.
So anyway, that's prettyinteresting.
But she's a really smart ladyand she knows her stuff.
Speaker 1 (31:11):
Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
But one shout out to CTS one ofthe kind of coolest hires at
the time because really she wasa resident expert in kind of
everything.
But I remember just likelunchtime we would bring brown
bag lunch and sit in the ESC orECS, whatever down by the
strengths and conditioning roomat CTS and we would just have a
(31:32):
topic and that would be once aweek and we would learn, yeah.
Speaker 2 (31:36):
Yeah, check out her socials because she puts out a
lot of good content on Instagramas well.
Um, so you know the things I'velearned, you know from from her
information and others you knowabout how oral contraceptives
could affect a performance isthat they alter, you know,
hormone fluctuations becausethey flatten out the estrogen
(31:58):
and progesterone and it couldimpact things like metabolism
and thermoregulation and maybe alittle bit of recovery and
muscle protein synthesis andpotentially blunt the body's
usual adaptations to trainingfor some athletes.
So Stacey recommends copperIUDs as a less impactful
(32:31):
solution for some ladies.
You know I use Mirena that hasa low dose of progesterone, so
it's not very significant andvery, from my understanding,
very little impact.
You know, I think Stacey goesfor the copper IUD just because
(32:52):
it has no hormones at all,because you know, on the
hormones, like I couldn't takethe pill or I tried to take the
pill and it I not.
On the performance side ofthings, I don't think I was
really racing at that point, itwas just made me crazy, like
moody.
Speaker 4 (33:11):
It made me moody.
Speaker 2 (33:11):
Anyway, I'm just saying that you have to talk to
your doctor.
You have to find out what worksfor you and what makes the most
sense.
I will say this Once I got theIUD, the Mirena game changer
Monthly symptoms, almost nil.
You don't usually get a periodwhen you're on Mirena.
(33:31):
That's a bonus, and it can stayin for five or seven years.
If you didn't know about itwhich I'm sure a lot of you
ladies did but it wasn't aroundwhen I was young.
It didn't come out until like2000.
And it really didn't getpopular in the US until 2010.
So I didn't even know about itin my key racing era, or else I
(33:55):
probably would have checked itout.
Speaker 1 (33:57):
Yeah, yeah, I would say a lot of my athletes, um, um
are using that now.
Uh, based on what I know, umseems to be working well, but
again, uh, it's individual talkto your doctor.
We are not medical experts, butthose are my observations.
Speaker 2 (34:19):
Yeah, and you know I'd encourage ladies out there
to talk to their coaches.
Even I forget to ask sometimes.
Last week I was with one of myathletes.
She was just like having a badweek and you know I finally
asked her like because Icouldn't figure out why she was
having such a bad week.
And you know we talked aboutperiods and things like that.
So you know, even I forget toask sometimes.
(34:40):
So you know, I think the justthe more we talk about it like
it's a regular just you know Igot a cold or I have my period
you know that just makes it alot less taboo.
I don't think it's really tabooanymore, but you know it's
still delicate.
Speaker 1 (34:59):
Yeah, it can be delicate, but I think it's taboo
in our society.
I hope it won't be into thefuture, but you know, having
podcasts in conversations likethis hopefully helps to get us
there.
Speaker 2 (35:11):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (35:11):
Yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2 (35:14):
Adam, we've got one more stage left tomorrow, one
more.
And the top of the podium iswrapped up.
She's got almost three minuteson.
Sarah Gigante.
There is no mountaintop finishtomorrow.
Sarah Gigante, there is nomountaintop finish tomorrow.
(35:34):
It is 124 kilometers, about 77miles.
The big feature of the day isthe Jouplan.
It's 11 kilometer climb, 8%grade, but it comes in the
middle of the stage, so the raceis not over.
We just talked a bunch aboutdescending and Sarah Gigante is
a little.
(35:54):
She needs a little help on thedescents.
I could see teams like Demi's,like Cassia's, rip in the
descent of that and puttingSarah into jeopardy.
I mean like on GC, jeopardy,not danger.
So I that's a real possibility.
(36:16):
So you know you want to catchtomorrow's stage, you know.
But Pauline, she's got itlocked up.
I think.
And you know it's been 40 yearssince a French had a winner of
the Tour de France.
Speaker 1 (36:32):
Really, I didn't know that.
Speaker 2 (36:34):
Bernard Hinault in 85 .
Well see, you wouldn't remember, because I don't even know if
you were born yet.
Then.
Speaker 1 (36:41):
This is true, but fun facts of cycling history is
something I'd love to learnabout, and I just learned
something.
So thank you, renee.
Speaker 2 (36:49):
Last pro tip for tomorrow Another day of full
coverage coverage, but it startslater.
9, 15 eastern 9, 15.
Speaker 1 (36:58):
Yeah, okay, well, so who?
Uh?
So who are you identifying asyour pick for tomorrow?
Right?
Speaker 2 (37:05):
oh shoot, I forgot to make a pick.
Yeah, um breakaway breakaway,rather your girl squibbing oh,
she's.
No, she's tired.
My brain is fried.
I got, I got no one.
Capecky.
Capecky was doing some teamworktoday.
(37:26):
Oh, and speaking of teamworkand jerseys and things like that
and the race and stuff, itlooks like Weebus has the green
jersey locked up.
Yeah, it looks like Shabby hasthe polka dots locked up.
Ninkavika is still in white,but there's still plenty of good
racing tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (37:45):
Yeah, tons of good racing.
And you know what?
My pick is PFP, and I hope shedoes like a tate move.
Yeah, because you're, you'relike what?
Like tate, with the men's racethey basically neutralize it
because the the rain and it got,uh.
So basically they're like, okay, all the jerseys are now safe.
And tate was like screw it,let's go bike racing.
And he just went for it andpart of me wants pauline to do
(38:08):
that, just to just be like.
You know what?
Speaker 3 (38:11):
girls.
Speaker 2 (38:14):
Boss would be a great candidate for tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (38:17):
You think so?
Huh, Not too medium-y,mountain-y for her.
Speaker 2 (38:23):
It depends on how hard they ride it.
I think they're going to ridethe descent hard.
Speaker 1 (38:29):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (38:30):
You know they could just tempo up the climb because
halfway through, but then to ripthe descent well and then you
know if they're ripping thedescent in bosses up there.
Speaker 1 (38:40):
She, she's very good at that she is all right we
shall see, and I look forward towatching some more awesome
racing.
So, uh, renee will leave itthere for today.
Hopefully a little shorterepisode so people can go out, uh
get away from us for a while,ride their bike on the weekend
and and uh come back fresh forthe final stage.
Speaker 2 (39:01):
Right on.
Speaker 1 (39:02):
See you tomorrow, thanks,
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