August 1, 2025 • 41 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 7 PODCAST OVERVIEW
Stage 7 of the 2025 Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift was another significant climbing day, meaning there was a hard-working breakaway, fireworks in the GC group, and a bunch of riders in the grupetto looking to save their legs for another day. Coaches Renee Eastman and Adam Pulford recap the stage and talk about the Training Stress Score (TSS) differences between the front and the back, plus the hows and whys of pro women racing multiple disciplines (i.e., road, cross, mtb), and look forward to the Queen Stage of the TDFF tomorrow.
ASK A QUESTION FOR A FUTURE PODCAST
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.
Listen to the episode on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, Google Podcasts, or on your favorite podcast platform
GET FREE TRAINING CONTENT
Join our weekly newsletter
CONNECT WITH CTS
Website: trainright.com
Instagram: @cts_trainright
Twitter: @trainright
Facebook: @CTSAthlete
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
What up fans, and that is Time Crunch fans, tdff
fans and Maeva Squibben fans.
I'm your host, coach AdamPulford, and alongside me is the
best co-host in the biz, reneeEastman.
What up, renee?
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Good morning, adam.
Great to be here.
Nice to see your lovely faceagain this morning.
Welcome listeners.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Likewise listeners.
The high performance directoron EF, oatly Cannondale, and
here is a quick voice messagethat she sent me over last night
and I will let everybody knowthat it does drop out halfway
through.
We'll talk about that, but thatis part of the chaos of the
Tour de France Femme, avec,zwift.
So let's hear from Emma Trottnow.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Hello, I'll do a voice note just because it's
easier and I can actually doother things while I'm talking.
So, from a team perspective,we're getting better day by day,
which was always a little bitour plan and our mission.
The tour is very much.
It's a back heavy in terms ofwell, I suppose, the elevation
(01:29):
gain, but also how hard the raceis.
It's patience, I suppose.
In general, everything is goingokay.
Riders are still, I want to say, alive.
There's always should be thefirst step right.
Everyone's everyone iscommitting to the plan and their
job.
I am super happy with whatwe've achieved so far.
Being present in a couple ofbreakaway days, maybe we didn't
(01:54):
get the end result that we thendesired, but the girls are
committing to the plan.
Everyone is recovering well sofar, which is pleasing.
We've got some nice recoverystrategies in place that all the
girls are committing to.
Now it really is just.
It really is as simple as wehave to do the basics.
It sounds very cliche, but Ithink this is where,
(02:19):
particularly on today's stage,making sure they're eating and
drinking, even if they're in thegrupetto or wherever they are
it's crucial.
If they're not doing that, thenfor sure we lack energy at some
point, and that's the momentthat we need the energy.
Everyone's got a role to playon this team, whether they're AJ
setting up at the beginning.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Adam, I don't know about you, but she sounds tired.
I mean we know the athletes aretired, but the staff is busting
butt all day long, 16 plus hourdays.
I know what it's like on theteam side of things, but staff's
(03:02):
tired too.
We know the riders are tired.
Have you heard any updates fromAllie?
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Yeah, I mean, it is hard to keep a good Canadian
down, renee.
So I chat with Allison poststage every day, kind of a mix
of WhatsApp text messages, voicemessages and some quick calls.
Uh, kind of a mix of WhatsApptext messages, voice messages
and some quick calls.
She's enjoying herself, Likeshe's having a great time.
Uh, she's.
Yeah, I mean, she's doing whatshe loves to do, which is riding
(03:31):
her bike at the biggest stage,and, uh, doing what she loves to
do.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Well, I saw uh Allie's Instagram post I don't
know if it was yesterdayafternoon or this morning um
that, uh, yesterday, stage six,she took the day off in the
groupetto.
If you guys aren't familiarwith that groupetto term, that
just means the ladies who arejust trying to finish inside the
(03:59):
time cut.
These are riders who maybe havedifferent roles on the team and
maybe they don't have aspecific role that day.
They're taking it easy so theycan be productive later in the
race.
Or maybe somebody like Wiebes,who had no shot at coming in
today, taking it as easy as theycan, but it's not really easy,
(04:24):
though, and we'll get to thatlater.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Yeah, so you know to talk about some of that, like
the tactics of the groupetto anda little bit more on AJ is.
I mean she is getting tired,just like anybody else.
It is a very hard race.
She's been in the brick acouple stages that we've talked
about now.
Hard race she's been in thebrick a couple stages that we've
(04:48):
talked about now and some ofher role is as team captain.
She's a worker bee but she'salso coaching the riders on her
team and also trying to make theright political move with the
other riders in the Peloton toform and shape it kind of the
way she wants to.
So how that works is some of herroles on the team is lead out
(05:10):
for the sprints on key stagesthat there is a sprint and so
working for Noemi, the sprinteron her team, and then also lead
outs into key hill climbs fortheir GC rider, kerbal, and so
just to position her well andsave Kerbal energy going into
the climbs.
And then once because AJ is nota GC rider or a specialty hill
(05:33):
climber, then her day isessentially done If it's just
like mountains after that.
So on a stage like yesterdaywhen I was looking at her file,
the front half essentially ofthe day was a lot of like high
tempo, like normalized power,with a lot of anaerobic surges
on off and like some big deepdigs and then she'll get back
(05:57):
into the Peloton and then againhits that long hill climb and
she'll have to ride, you know,hard to get up and over that.
But after that it was kind ofan easy endurance or recovery
ride going back in and what shesaid was like yeah, I had to
tell some of the girls in thegroup pedo to just like slow
down.
We have plenty of time, wedon't have to like flog
ourselves going into the finishline.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
So the intention on that group pedo is to chill out
because you know the next daythey'll have a bunch of duties
early on in the race and you gotto save energy for that so,
adam um, can you give me, giveus and me some contrast on what
a day in the group pedo the likeday off looks like, versus like
(06:39):
we know ally was in the breakthe day before in in five.
What's a day off like?
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So I'll pull up her trainingpeaks right here and I actually
didn't look at this ahead oftime to play off the TSS and
stuff like that.
But let's go back actually tostage three, when she was off in
the break on stage the, thetotal TSS on the day was 331
Watts for just under four hoursof racing.
(07:11):
And then the next stage whereshe kind of sat in, had her team
duties and and, but overallkind of easy did the whole group
pedal thing is 194 TSS and justover three hours of racing.
Now stage five, when she was inthe break, again like wrestling
the bike like we talked about,right, like digging deep
commitment has consequences 337TSS, total, uh, about over four
(07:38):
hours of of racing.
And then, um, yeah, yesterday,uh, when she had that group had
a worked hard in the front, halfchilled out, in the second half
, 270 TSS.
So you can see that contrast ofwhen you go, the stresses and
strains are definitely big andso when you get the opportunity
to chill out and kind of coastin, if you can and still make
(07:59):
the time mark, then you do it.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Adam, I know one of my friend's moms is listening to
this podcast it Adam?
I know one of my friend's momsis listening to this podcast.
Can you just really briefly saywhat TSS is and what, on the
scale, 300 is versus 200?
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So Training Peaks has done agreat job of helping us coaches
and riders be able to quantifyintensities and stresses and all
that kind of stuff.
So a training stress score, orTSS, is a number that is
assigned to how hard somethingwas on the day, and so the way
(08:33):
it works is we have a thresholdthat we determine that when the
point at which a rider starts toget more tired, that intensity
we mark as their threshold, andthen when you go out and ride
your bike, you get points.
You get these TSS points, andso those TSS points rack and
stack with how much ridingyou're doing at FTP or above FTP
(08:54):
or below FTP, and then forhowever long you ride.
So essentially you get pointsfor every minute that you're
riding.
That's TSS, and the harder it isor longer it is, the higher the
TSS.
So some, for you know, let'sjust say, for a rider at this
level, you know, uh, tss scoresand training of you know kind of
100 to 200, pretty normal, kindof.
(09:16):
You know, 200 is big trainingday, but 150 pretty normal.
Uh, now, when we go into racingand we start to see two, 50,
300, um, that's a bigger daywhen we're maybe like three 50
and above, you're going to haveperformance uh decrements the
next day.
It's harder to recover within24 hours right around three 50,
(09:38):
I would say.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Let me put it even in like plainer language, please.
You know, if you ride as hardas you can, like absolutely full
gas, as hard as you can, for anhour, you get 100 points.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
If your FTP is set properly, yes, Correct.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
If you just go out for an easy cruise endurance
ride, you know, not pushing ittoo hard, that might be 50
points.
You know, maybe you're doingsome intervals a little bit
harder ride for that might be 50points.
Maybe you're doing someintervals a little bit harder
ride, for that hour 70 points.
So that's kind of the scale 50to 100 points for really hard
ride at 100 or kind of easyendurance ride at 50, recovery
(10:31):
ride at 30, maybe 20.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
So if she's scoring 300 plus points, that is six
times harder than your hour longride.
And let's put it in simpleterms too If I went and rode my
bike and I scored 330 TSS points, I do not want to ride my bike
the next day, personally.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
And so, anyway, I think the point is she is
working much harder on thosebreakaway days, and when she's
taking it easier, it's stillpretty hard, it's just a little
easier, right.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
But that's again why we try to bring a rider in super
, super fit.
We use volume in allintensities to get that done.
But we want to build theresilience and the durability
and build the aerobic capacityso that when we enter in a you
know, a grand tour, uh, stagerace, you've, you've got the
bandwidth to, uh, you know, comeback, you know, recover and
(11:21):
come back the next day and do itall over again and do whatever
the team needs to do, uh, in hercase.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
So yeah, well, thanks , adam.
Uh, should we get onto thestage summary?
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Let's get on with it, because again I I rode my bike,
uh uh, this morning to for anhour, hit the mountain bike and
they had a couple of phone calls, so I joined with about an hour
and 15 minutes of racing to gosomething like that 50K.
So, renee, give us the recapand tell me everything that I
missed and tell our listenerswhat's up.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Sure, adam.
Today was another mountainstage.
It was pretty long 160K, abouta hundred miles.
The first half was pretty flatbut the back half was where all
the climbing was stacked.
The main feature of the day wasthe Category 2 Col de Grenier.
It topped out with about 20K togo to the finish.
(12:18):
My window watch alert for today.
It's a watch the last 25KYou're going to get all the best
action of the race.
The day started with anotherhuge breakaway.
Now that we're a little deeperinto the race you're seeing
(12:39):
these bigger breakaways, likeyesterday, like today, because
now there's more people who'velost more time that the GC
riders aren't concerned about sothey can give them plenty of
leash.
Another strategy with that isplacing satellite riders up
(13:01):
ahead and I'll get to that.
I'll circle back on that aswe're going along.
I was actually pretty excitedon the break.
We had three Americans in thegroup of 17 break American Chloe
Dygart from Kamiya SRAM, meganJabstrab from Picnic Post L and
Ruth Edwards from Human PoweredHealth Corrections Corner.
(13:24):
I called Ruth by her maidenname the other day, so sorry.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Ruth.
Easy to do, in fact, real quick.
I had a rider in Coloradolooking up a hill climb that she
was going to do this comingSaturday and she was like, oh,
ruth Edwards has the QOM.
And I'm like in my head, I'mlike Ruth Edwards, I'm like oh
yeah, of course, her maiden namewas Winder.
Winder yeah, yeah, that's howwe come up, I still think of her
(13:49):
as that, yeah, totally so.
Yes, I had the same moment theother day.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Fun fact about all of those Americans they are part
of a medal-winning team pursuitprogram at the Olympics for the
US, of course.
Program at the olympics, uh,for the us, of course.
Um another rider that was inthe break, mava squibbin,
yesterday's stage winner, umadam, I guess she wasn't too
(14:14):
tired after yesterday's 30kilometer solo I.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
You know what I'm a.
I'm a big mava fan.
Now, in fact, I got a littlemad because I was rearranging my
fantasy Tour de France of XZwift team last night and I
almost put her on my team and Ididn't, because I thought she'd
be tired and she wasn't.
So, shepo, yeah, mava.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
The biggest gap they had was about four and a half
minutes as they were starting toget into the climbs with about
50 kilometers to go.
When the climb started to come,and just as they hit more and
more climbs, the break just gotsmaller and smaller and smaller,
until it was just it was Ruthand Chloe and Squibbin and
(15:04):
somebody from Movistar.
Those were the last four leftfrom the break, so Chloe and
Ruth crushing it.
Today she was digging deep.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
If you saw some of the camera.
I mean she was like in the hurtlocker for sure, and it's it's
it's a rare occasion when she is.
But also those who were likecan we talk about AJ's bike fit
(15:33):
and whatever?
Go watch Chloe Diger.
Some of the best in the worldlike wrestling her bike to keep
up with uh, ruth and andSquibben, so I just just saying,
when you go hard, put a cameraon yourself and see what's up.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Uh, I'm going to humble Brad.
Okay, I took the QOM on the tophalf of Cheyenne Canyon and
then Chloe came back the nextday and got at me by like 10
seconds.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
When was that?
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Back when I was fit.
That was a few years ago.
All right, let's focus.
Um, okay, uh, so those lastfour left from the break and
squibbin, once again showing herform, attacks with a few
kilometers left to go of thefinal climb.
(16:29):
And you guys got to rememberthe final climb, topped out with
about 20 k's to go almost alldownhill to the finish,
something that I thought was abit of a surprise.
Today.
We expected some gc action anduh, kim la court got dropped as
the gc favorites were coming up.
(16:49):
Squibbins off the front there'sa few breakaway riders in
between and uh, uh, the gc groupjust started, you know, pushing
the pace.
It wasn't really anybodyattacking, it was just a pace.
Uh, look, the court got dropped.
Um, the gc group goes over thetop squibbins already on the
(17:11):
descent and we saw yesterday I,I noticed yesterday she is a
very good descender.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
She's like the double threat Good uphill and good
going downhill on their downhillcapability because as the
(17:39):
competition elevates, that'sanother area where they can
improve.
So no longer can you just begood at climbing, you need to
get good at descending to thepoint where they're hiring
downhill mountain bike coachesto get better at descending.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Yes, and we're going to talk about the descent Over
the top, squibbins ripping it up, but safely.
She's just really good and fast.
She wasn't taking any risksthat I saw.
She went on to win again Backto back days.
(18:14):
There are only a few riders whohave even won two stages of the
tour and they are names likeAnnemiek van Vleuten and Demi
Ballerine and Marlon Rousser.
So this is so exciting.
I was texting with our Frenchcoach companion there.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Firecracker, the French firecracker.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
French firecracker, and she was just like Viva la
France, you know, this morning,that's Caroline Manning, by the
way I expected fireworks fromthe GC group.
There was none, but I noticedDemi got to the front and I
think she did that to controlthe pace I was going to say.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
The one thing that I did notice was Demi was going
for it.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Well, but she wasn't ripping.
She's a very good descender,but she was controlling the pace
and I think that's why spoileralert LaC la court caught back
up by the end of the descent, sookay, so you're saying dami
came to the front to more orless control I, I thought she
(19:25):
came to the front.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Be like man, we need to get as many seconds as we can
.
So I'm going to come up and dostuff, but you're saying
controlled it, maybe slowed alittle bit and look it didn't
look that aggressive.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
I mean, nobody's wheels were sliding out in the
corners like we had seen withkerbal and cassia the last
couple days cassia got a littleclose to uh.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
Um, damien, at one point.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Yeah, it was they almost overlapped um, so that
was my take on it you know,interesting.
So because LaCorte was about 30seconds going over the top, 30
seconds behind the GC group, soshe caught that up.
So that means she ripped thedescent.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
I was blown away by that.
I didn't think that that wasgoing to happen.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
Neither did I, I didn't.
And you were talking aboutdescending and we've been
talking about teamwork.
I mentioned satellite ridersand you were talking about
descending and we've beentalking about teamwork.
I mentioned satellite riders.
A satellite rider is you go putsomebody in the breakaway to be
able to help your GC leaderlater in the day, because maybe
it's somebody like AJno-transcript teamwork, an
(21:05):
example of how that plays out.
And I know Sarah's been workingon her descending quite a bit
and she previewed all the routesand in particular the descents.
So let's move on and you know,catch up on the finish.
(21:26):
Amazing ride by Ruth Edwards tohang on for podium spot in
third.
She was between Squibin and theGC group.
So yay, america.
And actually one person fromthe GC group slipped off towards
(21:46):
the end of the scent and thatwas Kerbal.
She kind of ripped the end ofthe scent and she got a little
bit ahead of the GC group.
Those two only finished about10 seconds or so ahead of the GC
group.
Those two only finished about10 seconds or so ahead of the GC
group.
So Cabal got a couple ofseconds in second place.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Cause Cabal like sprinted to the line.
She, she had a good little snapat the end.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Yeah, I was rooting for Ruth.
It was close, I'd spike through.
Yeah, cabal caught Ruth with Idon't know 500 meters to go.
Not, yeah, kerbal caught Ruthwith I don't know 500 meters to
(22:31):
go Not very much to go, and atthe end losing the jersey.
I had been typing up my report,like PFP, is in yellow and you
know then had to erase itbecause she caught back up.
So there's no real changes inthe top five.
Lacourte's still in yellow.
We've got PFP and Kassia andDemi and Van der Breggen and
(22:51):
they're all within 35 seconds ofthe leader.
So you know, going intotomorrow, fireworks Only.
Other updates here Nika Vikatakes over the white jersey.
No changes with Elise Shabby inthe polka dots or Weebus in
green.
Weebus is starting to lookpretty solid on that because
(23:14):
there's not many sprints left.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
No, no yeah, no, that's it.
And I think, um, uh, to thatpoint, the one thing I you
mentioned shabby.
I was like, oh my god, shabby'sdrifting back, and then you
pointed out something that wasreally important and it plays
into the tactics, kind of likethe croupetto tactics.
But uh, the commentators weresaying, oh, shabby must be
(23:39):
broken because she didn't go forit on the final hill.
Climb, renee.
What was she actually doingthere tactically?
Speaker 2 (23:45):
well she didn't have to go the.
There were no points left forher to get right because there
were still breakaway riders uh,up the front.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
So basically, like there's only so many points and
there's a ton of people up theroad at that point, right, yeah,
and and and.
That's where I think foraudience members watching to
understand what's going on.
Commentators you know they'llsee shabby and they're like oh,
she must be tired, she must beon this, but she's not.
It's just like, tactically, nowshe can save for tomorrow.
She doesn't have to burn it allon that climb.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
Maybe a Squibbins in second in the polka dots.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
now yeah, I believe that.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
I mean she should be Shabby's 12 points ahead, so
that's solid.
But with the climbs that wehave coming up in the next few
days, I mean that'd be great.
See Squibbin in Jersey.
It was kind of fun today withall the riders.
In the break we had LucindaBrand and Chloe Digart, sharon
(24:43):
Van Anroy, probably a few othersthat I can't think of, who are
all multiple discipline riders.
Uh, chloe is uh rides track androad.
You know, last year at theolympics she wins a medal in
(25:03):
both track and road in the sameweek.
Or, you know, we can have thepart um, you know, sharon van
enroy, cycle cross store star.
Lucinda brand, former worldchampion in cyclocross in a
really key domestique on LittleTrek.
We've got some other names.
I'm not going to name them all,but some big ones.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
Puck Peterse, PFP.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Puck Peterse is the current mountain bike world
champion.
She was just like at some WorldCups a couple of weeks ago and
now is at the Tour de France.
Pfp multiple discipline boss.
You know there there's a lot ofother names out there our
french friend, uh, carolinemanny uh, let me know about, uh,
juliet labue and evita music.
(25:48):
I'd uh forgotten about those.
My point is we see this a lot inthe women's field, you know,
doing multiple disciplines anddoing it well.
We see it a little bit on themen's side.
You know Vanderpoel, van Aert,tom Pidcock between mountain
biking and cyclocross andsuccess on the road, I think
(26:10):
there's fewer crossovers there,crossovers there.
So I think there's someinteresting dynamics about why
the women might be moreprevalent to do that.
(26:30):
We'll talk about that in alittle later.
But I know that you coach a lotof like multiple discipline
athletes, people who are racingcyclocross in the winter, road
in the summer, or maybe evendoing a dual summer season of
mountain biking and road biking,and I thought that our
listeners would really like tohear about that, because I know
there's a lot of athletes outthere trying to do that.
(26:50):
So I wanted to get your inputon what you thought some
effective training strategiesare for these athletes in.
You know maybe what some of thebiggest challenges are.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
You know from the top level down another discipline
that we could weave into it alittle more too.
So I think, first, high level,the reason why we see it a
little bit more on the women'sside of things is because field
(27:25):
sizes and numbers of people arejust less than the men's side,
right the fields being kind ofdeeper, more competitive, both
cross and road.
So if you're just, if you're agood bike racer for the women
and you have some decent abilitythat will carry over, it's a
little bit easier to get into ita little bit more.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Yeah, so I think that's like I want to add
another thing about why.
You know we talked a lot aboutmoney this week in the Peloton.
Women, you know, uh, not makingas much as men.
Well, in particular withcyclocross, I know that the top
names, puck and Voss and peopleare making start money.
(28:11):
I asked our friend and coach,five-time French national
cyclocross champion, carolineManning, for a little intel on
that today.
She said that she was makinglike $1,000 start money and she
wasn't like, she was very, verygood, like podium on the world.
(28:33):
You know how good she was Twicebeat PFP to win her national
championship, once beat JulietteLeBou, so fun fact.
Anyway, my point is, you knowshe was making about $1,000.
You know, I would guess that,like Voss, peterson, were making
thousands.
(28:53):
So anyway, it's like pocketmoney for an hour's worth of
work.
You know, I think the otherreason a lot of these women
started in cross and or mountainbiking and then maybe went to
the road, because the road iswhere you can make.
The teams are bigger.
(29:16):
You know that was somethingthat caroline mentioned about,
especially the two french ridersI mentioned is that just more
opportunity for them to beprofessional road riders.
So that was um interesting andmaybe another big reason that
they're all racing cross.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
It's a blast, it's a lot of fun yeah, well, I mean
exactly, and that's kind ofwhere I was going to get with.
It is like from thedevelopmental side of things,
especially in Europe, cyclocrossis culturally just a ton of fun
.
You can put a kid on a bike,have them start racing.
(29:58):
You get a ton of opportunity.
They're short races.
You can race multiple times inthe same weekend and it really
develops skill and race tacticsquite well.
Then as you move up, the roaddevelops everything and the road
is where the money's at more orless.
From that standpoint, with theseason layup as it is, being
(30:18):
able to do a road and crossseason, especially on the
women's side of things, it worksout pretty well, making more
money most of the women makingmore money on the road versus
cross.
But then the cross specificriders, yeah, they'll make
pretty good money there as well.
So that's kind of why thosedual race seasons can work.
(30:41):
I think the mountain bike toroad is is more tricky.
Throw in cyclocross and likewhat puck's doing that, that's
real tricky.
Um PFP is kind of like expandedthat over her whole career and
season but or, sorry, her wholecareer and done so with um.
You know really good success.
But when it comes down tomanaging it, I mean.
(31:03):
But when it comes down tomanaging it, I mean, yes, I
coach riders like that, but itis.
It is not straightforward, it'snot a one-size-fits-all.
I think the biggest thing ismake sure to take your breaks.
Oh well, look at that.
Who's our special guestappearance today?
Speaker 2 (31:16):
um a very uh fond, uh uh cat of mine.
His name's sam Sammy.
He likes the meowing stages.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
The meowing stages.
Well, I feel like Miss AllieTetrick probably paid you to
have that cameo happen, butwhere were we?
Yeah, just talking aboutmanaging different disciplines
right.
You got to take your breaks inbetween seasons.
I think for especially myjunior elites that are doing
that, there's very short timeperiods between, like,
(31:51):
cyclocross worlds and then thestart of some of the junior
Nations Cup at the beginning ofthe year, the nation's cups or
the like the big races, right,and then world championships.
Then we got like a well, cyclecross actually starts a little
bit before that and we have veryshort time period to go into
cross.
So I think it's the racing yearround.
(32:11):
You got to do a very good jobof planning in breaks when you
can, um, especially like kind ofright now is a good time to
take a break If you're a juniorrace in both road, both road and
cross, and those breaks arecrucial, meanwhile keeping it
fun.
You know, at every level of thesport, even at the elite level
or the master's level, if you'reracing a bunch of road races
(32:34):
and then kind of carry thatfitness over into cross, take
your breaks, because you'll justburn out if you don't you'll
just burn out if you don't.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
Yeah, I wanted to follow up on that because I was
thinking about some of theathletes that I coach who are
dual sport athletes.
But you know, I live here inColorado.
I coach some people up in Aspenand Vail and Breckenridge who
their two sports seasons are.
I ski in the winter and I ridein the summer and you know some
interesting things about youknow balancing that.
(33:08):
That you know they're, you knowflipping switches a little bit
on how they approach theirdisciplines and you know when
it's a completely differentsport and you know, maybe not as
intense, you know the breaksdon't have to be as much.
Because they're coming off aski season they're super psyched
(33:31):
to ride their bike, or it'sgetting to October, it's too
cold and veiled a ride.
So you know, go into the gym,get strong and get ready for ski
season.
So you know that's.
That's kind of the thing that Isee a lot with my uh, a lot of
athletes I coach.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Yeah, yeah, that's it , and I think too it's.
It's again goes back to thelike, uh, the individual level
of things.
And also, how much are youracing?
Cause it's usually the travel,the races, all this kind of
stuff.
It kind of cracks you out alittle bit more.
And so I think if you stayahead of your planning, if
you're a self-coached athlete,of when you're going to take
those breaks, kind of in theshoulder seasons of the year,
(34:14):
you can look forward to that.
You can see the light at theend of the tunnel and actually
take a break, no matter, like,how good you're feeling.
I think the mental break isprobably the most important
because physically, in betweenseasons, most masters level
riders I mean that the fatiguecan be resolved in a couple of
weeks.
At the elite level changes alittle bit, could be a little
bit longer, but I think it'smentally.
(34:36):
You need that time todecompress and take the pressure
off for, like, performing orachieving those goals.
Not everything needs to be, youknow, optimized or you don't
have to be, you know, on it allthe time.
You need to chill out a littlebit, just ride your bike and
have some easy days.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
Yeah, and you know, back to my point on the, you
know, depending on how seriouslyyou're taking it, obviously, if
you're Puck Peterson, shereally needs a break and she
really needs to manage that.
If you're just, you know, theweekend warrior and the summer
bike rider and the winter skier,you know you're getting enough
freshness and break between justthe switching of the sport.
(35:14):
So it's like completelydifferent ends of the spectrum
of course, but you know, I justthought I'd mention that.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
Yeah, no, it's definitely.
I mean it's spot on and it'sreally good to mention.
I think for the age groupers atleast the athletes that I coach
is like they think they need tobe on all the time.
So it's like when they flip theswitch, it's like they go from
like full on bike racing mode orlike like full on bike mode and
then there's like full on skimountaineering or whatever it is
(35:41):
, and it's just like whoa, whoachill.
You can like transition alittle bit more easily.
You don't have to be full tilt,full gas all in one sport
versus the other yeah, itdepends on how seriously you're
taking it.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
You know talk about training load and you know how
much recovery you need off atraining load if you're riding
six hours a week, so maybe notneeding as much of a break at
the end of that yeah, well,let's, uh, let's look ahead to
stage eight and let's start tobring this thing home here,
renee um adam.
(36:14):
Tomorrow is the day um your dayno, it's the day of the race.
This is the queen stage of theTour de France FEMS.
It is the only mountaintopfinish.
The race tops out on the Cold'Op Madelaine, which is almost
(36:38):
20 kilometers.
At 8%, this is going to takethem more than an hour to climb.
At 8%, this is going to takethem more than an hour to climb.
So we expect, you know, minutes, potentially in time gaps.
That would be a real thing tohappen.
The stage starts with a climbout of the gate 13 kilometer
(36:59):
climb.
Then it's kind of lumpy in themiddle and then you hit the
final climb at the end.
Special alert Peacock is airingthe race live in the US from
start.
So that's 740 Eastern.
I think this is the one thatyou guys want to watch the whole
stage, because this is it.
It's a Saturday, it's theweekend.
(37:21):
I say after your ride tomorrow,I want you to maximize your
recovery, park yourself on thecouch, grab some snacks and
watch the race, because it'sgoing to be fireworks for sure
and I think we will have a verygood idea of who's going to win
the overall by the end oftomorrow?
Speaker 1 (37:42):
Yep, yep, I would agree with that, and I was
thinking you were thinking it'dbe your day to take over GC on
the fantasy Tour de France, fomof X, zwift from the CTS Fantasy
League.
You're kind of crushing it,adam.
But who's your pick fortomorrow, renee?
Speaker 2 (37:59):
I'm going to go.
Speaker 1 (37:59):
I'm trying.
I'm in yellow.
I got to keep it for the nextcouple stages, but yeah, who's
your pick for tomorrow?
Speaker 2 (38:06):
I'm going to place my bets on Sarah Gigante.
She's arguably the best climberin the race.
She won the two mountain stagesat the Giro by significant gaps
, over like Rooser and in longerbikini.
Now, that wasn't those gals,weren't Demi?
(38:27):
But Gigante can win and Demican still win the overall, or
PFP can still win the overall,because Gigante is a little bit
back.
I should have to look at hertime gap today to find out.
And I was listening to thewheel talk podcast.
Um, if you guys want to nerd outtotally on the race tactics and
(38:51):
the inside baseball stuff on,uh, women's racing wheel talk is
uh, it's a pretty good one.
She had a writer diaryyesterday and she said when the
race uh route was announced lastyear, she marked her calendar
for tomorrow's stage.
She has been out uh this earlyspring.
(39:14):
She and her mom did airbnb tourto recon every stage and she is
uh on it.
So, um, my, my outside pick.
It's not really an outside, butit's uh, it's a shot.
She is 114 back on on gc.
(39:35):
That's it's not impossible.
It's an outside shot, but it'snot impossible to get up there.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
Yeah, they could let her go.
A little bit of a leash I'd sayit's an outside pick.
I mean, if there's any stagethat she could win, it's
definitely this one.
But I feel like, after seeingSquibin go up the road and I
don't know, I think the likes ofDamie, especially in PFP.
I think we'll start to flex hermuscles a little bit more.
Cassio will be there, but Imight go with the Queen Bee
(40:09):
tomorrow.
I might go with Damien.
Speaker 2 (40:12):
That is not.
It's a solid pick.
We're going to have to see.
Speaker 1 (40:18):
We shall see.
We shall see.
Well, renee, we shall seetomorrow, and I'm assuming that
you're going to be watching thefull stage in its entirety.
Speaker 2 (40:28):
You betcha.
Speaker 1 (40:29):
Stressing out at 540 mountain time.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
Well, I look forward to that.
I look forward to couch andsnacks and watching some more
bike racing.
Renee, thank you again for thecomplete stage summary, all the
insights and really taking thereins on this whole TDFF podcast
that CTS is so graciouslysupporting us to do.
So appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
All right, we'll see you tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (40:56):
All righty and audience members, we will see
you back here tomorrowpost-stage.
And don't forget to just sharethis with a friend.
Like it on all the socials.
Smash that like button onYouTube if you're watching it
there.
And, yeah, keep on helping usshare this show because if you
like it, you'll see it againnext year.
(41:17):
Maybe we do some other riffsand versions of it in the future
to come.
So thanks again for all of ourlisteners.
Renee, ciao, Ciao.
What up fans, and that is Time Crunch fans, tdff
fans and Maeva Squibben fans.
I'm your host, coach AdamPulford, and alongside me is the
best co-host in the biz, reneeEastman.
What up, renee?
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Good morning, adam.
Great to be here.
Nice to see your lovely faceagain this morning.
Welcome listeners.
Speaker 1 (00:39):
Likewise listeners.
The high performance directoron EF, oatly Cannondale, and
here is a quick voice messagethat she sent me over last night
and I will let everybody knowthat it does drop out halfway
through.
We'll talk about that, but thatis part of the chaos of the
Tour de France Femme, avec,zwift.
So let's hear from Emma Trottnow.
Speaker 3 (01:04):
Hello, I'll do a voice note just because it's
easier and I can actually doother things while I'm talking.
So, from a team perspective,we're getting better day by day,
which was always a little bitour plan and our mission.
The tour is very much.
It's a back heavy in terms ofwell, I suppose, the elevation
(01:29):
gain, but also how hard the raceis.
It's patience, I suppose.
In general, everything is goingokay.
Riders are still, I want to say, alive.
There's always should be thefirst step right.
Everyone's everyone iscommitting to the plan and their
job.
I am super happy with whatwe've achieved so far.
Being present in a couple ofbreakaway days, maybe we didn't
(01:54):
get the end result that we thendesired, but the girls are
committing to the plan.
Everyone is recovering well sofar, which is pleasing.
We've got some nice recoverystrategies in place that all the
girls are committing to.
Now it really is just.
It really is as simple as wehave to do the basics.
It sounds very cliche, but Ithink this is where,
(02:19):
particularly on today's stage,making sure they're eating and
drinking, even if they're in thegrupetto or wherever they are
it's crucial.
If they're not doing that, thenfor sure we lack energy at some
point, and that's the momentthat we need the energy.
Everyone's got a role to playon this team, whether they're AJ
setting up at the beginning.
Speaker 2 (02:40):
Adam, I don't know about you, but she sounds tired.
I mean we know the athletes aretired, but the staff is busting
butt all day long, 16 plus hourdays.
I know what it's like on theteam side of things, but staff's
(03:02):
tired too.
We know the riders are tired.
Have you heard any updates fromAllie?
Speaker 1 (03:10):
Yeah, I mean, it is hard to keep a good Canadian
down, renee.
So I chat with Allison poststage every day, kind of a mix
of WhatsApp text messages, voicemessages and some quick calls.
Uh, kind of a mix of WhatsApptext messages, voice messages
and some quick calls.
She's enjoying herself, Likeshe's having a great time.
Uh, she's.
Yeah, I mean, she's doing whatshe loves to do, which is riding
(03:31):
her bike at the biggest stage,and, uh, doing what she loves to
do.
Speaker 2 (03:35):
Well, I saw uh Allie's Instagram post I don't
know if it was yesterdayafternoon or this morning um
that, uh, yesterday, stage six,she took the day off in the
groupetto.
If you guys aren't familiarwith that groupetto term, that
just means the ladies who arejust trying to finish inside the
(03:59):
time cut.
These are riders who maybe havedifferent roles on the team and
maybe they don't have aspecific role that day.
They're taking it easy so theycan be productive later in the
race.
Or maybe somebody like Wiebes,who had no shot at coming in
today, taking it as easy as theycan, but it's not really easy,
(04:24):
though, and we'll get to thatlater.
Speaker 1 (04:28):
Yeah, so you know to talk about some of that, like
the tactics of the groupetto anda little bit more on AJ is.
I mean she is getting tired,just like anybody else.
It is a very hard race.
She's been in the brick acouple stages that we've talked
about now.
Hard race she's been in thebrick a couple stages that we've
(04:48):
talked about now and some ofher role is as team captain.
She's a worker bee but she'salso coaching the riders on her
team and also trying to make theright political move with the
other riders in the Peloton toform and shape it kind of the
way she wants to.
So how that works is some of herroles on the team is lead out
(05:10):
for the sprints on key stagesthat there is a sprint and so
working for Noemi, the sprinteron her team, and then also lead
outs into key hill climbs fortheir GC rider, kerbal, and so
just to position her well andsave Kerbal energy going into
the climbs.
And then once because AJ is nota GC rider or a specialty hill
(05:33):
climber, then her day isessentially done If it's just
like mountains after that.
So on a stage like yesterdaywhen I was looking at her file,
the front half essentially ofthe day was a lot of like high
tempo, like normalized power,with a lot of anaerobic surges
on off and like some big deepdigs and then she'll get back
(05:57):
into the Peloton and then againhits that long hill climb and
she'll have to ride, you know,hard to get up and over that.
But after that it was kind ofan easy endurance or recovery
ride going back in and what shesaid was like yeah, I had to
tell some of the girls in thegroup pedo to just like slow
down.
We have plenty of time, wedon't have to like flog
ourselves going into the finishline.
Speaker 2 (06:17):
So the intention on that group pedo is to chill out
because you know the next daythey'll have a bunch of duties
early on in the race and you gotto save energy for that so,
adam um, can you give me, giveus and me some contrast on what
a day in the group pedo the likeday off looks like, versus like
(06:39):
we know ally was in the breakthe day before in in five.
What's a day off like?
Speaker 1 (06:48):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So I'll pull up her trainingpeaks right here and I actually
didn't look at this ahead oftime to play off the TSS and
stuff like that.
But let's go back actually tostage three, when she was off in
the break on stage the, thetotal TSS on the day was 331
Watts for just under four hoursof racing.
(07:11):
And then the next stage whereshe kind of sat in, had her team
duties and and, but overallkind of easy did the whole group
pedal thing is 194 TSS and justover three hours of racing.
Now stage five, when she was inthe break, again like wrestling
the bike like we talked about,right, like digging deep
commitment has consequences 337TSS, total, uh, about over four
(07:38):
hours of of racing.
And then, um, yeah, yesterday,uh, when she had that group had
a worked hard in the front, halfchilled out, in the second half
, 270 TSS.
So you can see that contrast ofwhen you go, the stresses and
strains are definitely big andso when you get the opportunity
to chill out and kind of coastin, if you can and still make
(07:59):
the time mark, then you do it.
Speaker 2 (08:00):
Adam, I know one of my friend's moms is listening to
this podcast it Adam?
I know one of my friend's momsis listening to this podcast.
Can you just really briefly saywhat TSS is and what, on the
scale, 300 is versus 200?
Speaker 1 (08:11):
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So Training Peaks has done agreat job of helping us coaches
and riders be able to quantifyintensities and stresses and all
that kind of stuff.
So a training stress score, orTSS, is a number that is
assigned to how hard somethingwas on the day, and so the way
(08:33):
it works is we have a thresholdthat we determine that when the
point at which a rider starts toget more tired, that intensity
we mark as their threshold, andthen when you go out and ride
your bike, you get points.
You get these TSS points, andso those TSS points rack and
stack with how much ridingyou're doing at FTP or above FTP
(08:54):
or below FTP, and then forhowever long you ride.
So essentially you get pointsfor every minute that you're
riding.
That's TSS, and the harder it isor longer it is, the higher the
TSS.
So some, for you know, let'sjust say, for a rider at this
level, you know, uh, tss scoresand training of you know kind of
100 to 200, pretty normal, kindof.
(09:16):
You know, 200 is big trainingday, but 150 pretty normal.
Uh, now, when we go into racingand we start to see two, 50,
300, um, that's a bigger daywhen we're maybe like three 50
and above, you're going to haveperformance uh decrements the
next day.
It's harder to recover within24 hours right around three 50,
(09:38):
I would say.
Speaker 2 (09:40):
Let me put it even in like plainer language, please.
You know, if you ride as hardas you can, like absolutely full
gas, as hard as you can, for anhour, you get 100 points.
Speaker 1 (09:52):
If your FTP is set properly, yes, Correct.
Speaker 2 (09:56):
If you just go out for an easy cruise endurance
ride, you know, not pushing ittoo hard, that might be 50
points.
You know, maybe you're doingsome intervals a little bit
harder ride for that might be 50points.
Maybe you're doing someintervals a little bit harder
ride, for that hour 70 points.
So that's kind of the scale 50to 100 points for really hard
ride at 100 or kind of easyendurance ride at 50, recovery
(10:31):
ride at 30, maybe 20.
Speaker 1 (10:32):
So if she's scoring 300 plus points, that is six
times harder than your hour longride.
And let's put it in simpleterms too If I went and rode my
bike and I scored 330 TSS points, I do not want to ride my bike
the next day, personally.
Speaker 2 (10:43):
And so, anyway, I think the point is she is
working much harder on thosebreakaway days, and when she's
taking it easier, it's stillpretty hard, it's just a little
easier, right.
Speaker 1 (10:59):
But that's again why we try to bring a rider in super
, super fit.
We use volume in allintensities to get that done.
But we want to build theresilience and the durability
and build the aerobic capacityso that when we enter in a you
know, a grand tour, uh, stagerace, you've, you've got the
bandwidth to, uh, you know, comeback, you know, recover and
(11:21):
come back the next day and do itall over again and do whatever
the team needs to do, uh, in hercase.
Speaker 2 (11:26):
So yeah, well, thanks , adam.
Uh, should we get onto thestage summary?
Speaker 1 (11:33):
Let's get on with it, because again I I rode my bike,
uh uh, this morning to for anhour, hit the mountain bike and
they had a couple of phone calls, so I joined with about an hour
and 15 minutes of racing to gosomething like that 50K.
So, renee, give us the recapand tell me everything that I
missed and tell our listenerswhat's up.
Speaker 2 (11:55):
Sure, adam.
Today was another mountainstage.
It was pretty long 160K, abouta hundred miles.
The first half was pretty flatbut the back half was where all
the climbing was stacked.
The main feature of the day wasthe Category 2 Col de Grenier.
It topped out with about 20K togo to the finish.
(12:18):
My window watch alert for today.
It's a watch the last 25KYou're going to get all the best
action of the race.
The day started with anotherhuge breakaway.
Now that we're a little deeperinto the race you're seeing
(12:39):
these bigger breakaways, likeyesterday, like today, because
now there's more people who'velost more time that the GC
riders aren't concerned about sothey can give them plenty of
leash.
Another strategy with that isplacing satellite riders up
(13:01):
ahead and I'll get to that.
I'll circle back on that aswe're going along.
I was actually pretty excitedon the break.
We had three Americans in thegroup of 17 break American Chloe
Dygart from Kamiya SRAM, meganJabstrab from Picnic Post L and
Ruth Edwards from Human PoweredHealth Corrections Corner.
(13:24):
I called Ruth by her maidenname the other day, so sorry.
Speaker 1 (13:27):
Ruth.
Easy to do, in fact, real quick.
I had a rider in Coloradolooking up a hill climb that she
was going to do this comingSaturday and she was like, oh,
ruth Edwards has the QOM.
And I'm like in my head, I'mlike Ruth Edwards, I'm like oh
yeah, of course, her maiden namewas Winder.
Winder yeah, yeah, that's howwe come up, I still think of her
(13:49):
as that, yeah, totally so.
Yes, I had the same moment theother day.
Speaker 2 (13:54):
Fun fact about all of those Americans they are part
of a medal-winning team pursuitprogram at the Olympics for the
US, of course.
Program at the olympics, uh,for the us, of course.
Um another rider that was inthe break, mava squibbin,
yesterday's stage winner, umadam, I guess she wasn't too
(14:14):
tired after yesterday's 30kilometer solo I.
Speaker 1 (14:18):
You know what I'm a.
I'm a big mava fan.
Now, in fact, I got a littlemad because I was rearranging my
fantasy Tour de France of XZwift team last night and I
almost put her on my team and Ididn't, because I thought she'd
be tired and she wasn't.
So, shepo, yeah, mava.
Speaker 2 (14:39):
The biggest gap they had was about four and a half
minutes as they were starting toget into the climbs with about
50 kilometers to go.
When the climb started to come,and just as they hit more and
more climbs, the break just gotsmaller and smaller and smaller,
until it was just it was Ruthand Chloe and Squibbin and
(15:04):
somebody from Movistar.
Those were the last four leftfrom the break, so Chloe and
Ruth crushing it.
Today she was digging deep.
Speaker 1 (15:12):
If you saw some of the camera.
I mean she was like in the hurtlocker for sure, and it's it's
it's a rare occasion when she is.
But also those who were likecan we talk about AJ's bike fit
(15:33):
and whatever?
Go watch Chloe Diger.
Some of the best in the worldlike wrestling her bike to keep
up with uh, ruth and andSquibben, so I just just saying,
when you go hard, put a cameraon yourself and see what's up.
Speaker 2 (15:48):
Uh, I'm going to humble Brad.
Okay, I took the QOM on the tophalf of Cheyenne Canyon and
then Chloe came back the nextday and got at me by like 10
seconds.
Speaker 1 (16:06):
When was that?
Speaker 2 (16:08):
Back when I was fit.
That was a few years ago.
All right, let's focus.
Um, okay, uh, so those lastfour left from the break and
squibbin, once again showing herform, attacks with a few
kilometers left to go of thefinal climb.
(16:29):
And you guys got to rememberthe final climb, topped out with
about 20 k's to go almost alldownhill to the finish,
something that I thought was abit of a surprise.
Today.
We expected some gc action anduh, kim la court got dropped as
the gc favorites were coming up.
(16:49):
Squibbins off the front there'sa few breakaway riders in
between and uh, uh, the gc groupjust started, you know, pushing
the pace.
It wasn't really anybodyattacking, it was just a pace.
Uh, look, the court got dropped.
Um, the gc group goes over thetop squibbins already on the
(17:11):
descent and we saw yesterday I,I noticed yesterday she is a
very good descender.
Speaker 1 (17:16):
She's like the double threat Good uphill and good
going downhill on their downhillcapability because as the
(17:39):
competition elevates, that'sanother area where they can
improve.
So no longer can you just begood at climbing, you need to
get good at descending to thepoint where they're hiring
downhill mountain bike coachesto get better at descending.
Speaker 2 (17:51):
Yes, and we're going to talk about the descent Over
the top, squibbins ripping it up, but safely.
She's just really good and fast.
She wasn't taking any risksthat I saw.
She went on to win again Backto back days.
(18:14):
There are only a few riders whohave even won two stages of the
tour and they are names likeAnnemiek van Vleuten and Demi
Ballerine and Marlon Rousser.
So this is so exciting.
I was texting with our Frenchcoach companion there.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Firecracker, the French firecracker.
Speaker 2 (18:37):
French firecracker, and she was just like Viva la
France, you know, this morning,that's Caroline Manning, by the
way I expected fireworks fromthe GC group.
There was none, but I noticedDemi got to the front and I
think she did that to controlthe pace I was going to say.
Speaker 1 (18:58):
The one thing that I did notice was Demi was going
for it.
Speaker 2 (19:02):
Well, but she wasn't ripping.
She's a very good descender,but she was controlling the pace
and I think that's why spoileralert LaC la court caught back
up by the end of the descent, sookay, so you're saying dami
came to the front to more orless control I, I thought she
(19:25):
came to the front.
Speaker 1 (19:25):
Be like man, we need to get as many seconds as we can
.
So I'm going to come up and dostuff, but you're saying
controlled it, maybe slowed alittle bit and look it didn't
look that aggressive.
Speaker 2 (19:36):
I mean, nobody's wheels were sliding out in the
corners like we had seen withkerbal and cassia the last
couple days cassia got a littleclose to uh.
Speaker 1 (19:46):
Um, damien, at one point.
Speaker 2 (19:48):
Yeah, it was they almost overlapped um, so that
was my take on it you know,interesting.
So because LaCorte was about 30seconds going over the top, 30
seconds behind the GC group, soshe caught that up.
So that means she ripped thedescent.
Speaker 1 (20:07):
I was blown away by that.
I didn't think that that wasgoing to happen.
Speaker 2 (20:09):
Neither did I, I didn't.
And you were talking aboutdescending and we've been
talking about teamwork.
I mentioned satellite ridersand you were talking about
descending and we've beentalking about teamwork.
I mentioned satellite riders.
A satellite rider is you go putsomebody in the breakaway to be
able to help your GC leaderlater in the day, because maybe
it's somebody like AJno-transcript teamwork, an
(21:05):
example of how that plays out.
And I know Sarah's been workingon her descending quite a bit
and she previewed all the routesand in particular the descents.
So let's move on and you know,catch up on the finish.
(21:26):
Amazing ride by Ruth Edwards tohang on for podium spot in
third.
She was between Squibin and theGC group.
So yay, america.
And actually one person fromthe GC group slipped off towards
(21:46):
the end of the scent and thatwas Kerbal.
She kind of ripped the end ofthe scent and she got a little
bit ahead of the GC group.
Those two only finished about10 seconds or so ahead of the GC
group.
Those two only finished about10 seconds or so ahead of the GC
group.
So Cabal got a couple ofseconds in second place.
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (22:03):
Cause Cabal like sprinted to the line.
She, she had a good little snapat the end.
Speaker 2 (22:07):
Yeah, I was rooting for Ruth.
It was close, I'd spike through.
Yeah, cabal caught Ruth with Idon't know 500 meters to go.
Not, yeah, kerbal caught Ruthwith I don't know 500 meters to
(22:31):
go Not very much to go, and atthe end losing the jersey.
I had been typing up my report,like PFP, is in yellow and you
know then had to erase itbecause she caught back up.
So there's no real changes inthe top five.
Lacourte's still in yellow.
We've got PFP and Kassia andDemi and Van der Breggen and
(22:51):
they're all within 35 seconds ofthe leader.
So you know, going intotomorrow, fireworks Only.
Other updates here Nika Vikatakes over the white jersey.
No changes with Elise Shabby inthe polka dots or Weebus in
green.
Weebus is starting to lookpretty solid on that because
(23:14):
there's not many sprints left.
Speaker 1 (23:17):
No, no yeah, no, that's it.
And I think, um, uh, to thatpoint, the one thing I you
mentioned shabby.
I was like, oh my god, shabby'sdrifting back, and then you
pointed out something that wasreally important and it plays
into the tactics, kind of likethe croupetto tactics.
But uh, the commentators weresaying, oh, shabby must be
(23:39):
broken because she didn't go forit on the final hill.
Climb, renee.
What was she actually doingthere tactically?
Speaker 2 (23:45):
well she didn't have to go the.
There were no points left forher to get right because there
were still breakaway riders uh,up the front.
Speaker 1 (23:54):
So basically, like there's only so many points and
there's a ton of people up theroad at that point, right, yeah,
and and and.
That's where I think foraudience members watching to
understand what's going on.
Commentators you know they'llsee shabby and they're like oh,
she must be tired, she must beon this, but she's not.
It's just like, tactically, nowshe can save for tomorrow.
She doesn't have to burn it allon that climb.
Speaker 2 (24:16):
Maybe a Squibbins in second in the polka dots.
Speaker 1 (24:18):
now yeah, I believe that.
Speaker 2 (24:20):
I mean she should be Shabby's 12 points ahead, so
that's solid.
But with the climbs that wehave coming up in the next few
days, I mean that'd be great.
See Squibbin in Jersey.
It was kind of fun today withall the riders.
In the break we had LucindaBrand and Chloe Digart, sharon
(24:43):
Van Anroy, probably a few othersthat I can't think of, who are
all multiple discipline riders.
Uh, chloe is uh rides track androad.
You know, last year at theolympics she wins a medal in
(25:03):
both track and road in the sameweek.
Or, you know, we can have thepart um, you know, sharon van
enroy, cycle cross store star.
Lucinda brand, former worldchampion in cyclocross in a
really key domestique on LittleTrek.
We've got some other names.
I'm not going to name them all,but some big ones.
Speaker 1 (25:25):
Puck Peterse, PFP.
Speaker 2 (25:26):
Puck Peterse is the current mountain bike world
champion.
She was just like at some WorldCups a couple of weeks ago and
now is at the Tour de France.
Pfp multiple discipline boss.
You know there there's a lot ofother names out there our
french friend, uh, carolinemanny uh, let me know about, uh,
juliet labue and evita music.
(25:48):
I'd uh forgotten about those.
My point is we see this a lot inthe women's field, you know,
doing multiple disciplines anddoing it well.
We see it a little bit on themen's side.
You know Vanderpoel, van Aert,tom Pidcock between mountain
biking and cyclocross andsuccess on the road, I think
(26:10):
there's fewer crossovers there,crossovers there.
So I think there's someinteresting dynamics about why
the women might be moreprevalent to do that.
(26:30):
We'll talk about that in alittle later.
But I know that you coach a lotof like multiple discipline
athletes, people who are racingcyclocross in the winter, road
in the summer, or maybe evendoing a dual summer season of
mountain biking and road biking,and I thought that our
listeners would really like tohear about that, because I know
there's a lot of athletes outthere trying to do that.
(26:50):
So I wanted to get your inputon what you thought some
effective training strategiesare for these athletes in.
You know maybe what some of thebiggest challenges are.
Speaker 1 (27:04):
You know from the top level down another discipline
that we could weave into it alittle more too.
So I think, first, high level,the reason why we see it a
little bit more on the women'sside of things is because field
(27:25):
sizes and numbers of people arejust less than the men's side,
right the fields being kind ofdeeper, more competitive, both
cross and road.
So if you're just, if you're agood bike racer for the women
and you have some decent abilitythat will carry over, it's a
little bit easier to get into ita little bit more.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Yeah, so I think that's like I want to add
another thing about why.
You know we talked a lot aboutmoney this week in the Peloton.
Women, you know, uh, not makingas much as men.
Well, in particular withcyclocross, I know that the top
names, puck and Voss and peopleare making start money.
(28:11):
I asked our friend and coach,five-time French national
cyclocross champion, carolineManning, for a little intel on
that today.
She said that she was makinglike $1,000 start money and she
wasn't like, she was very, verygood, like podium on the world.
(28:33):
You know how good she was Twicebeat PFP to win her national
championship, once beat JulietteLeBou, so fun fact.
Anyway, my point is, you knowshe was making about $1,000.
You know, I would guess that,like Voss, peterson, were making
thousands.
(28:53):
So anyway, it's like pocketmoney for an hour's worth of
work.
You know, I think the otherreason a lot of these women
started in cross and or mountainbiking and then maybe went to
the road, because the road iswhere you can make.
The teams are bigger.
(29:16):
You know that was somethingthat caroline mentioned about,
especially the two french ridersI mentioned is that just more
opportunity for them to beprofessional road riders.
So that was um interesting andmaybe another big reason that
they're all racing cross.
Speaker 1 (29:37):
It's a blast, it's a lot of fun yeah, well, I mean
exactly, and that's kind ofwhere I was going to get with.
It is like from thedevelopmental side of things,
especially in Europe, cyclocrossis culturally just a ton of fun
.
You can put a kid on a bike,have them start racing.
(29:58):
You get a ton of opportunity.
They're short races.
You can race multiple times inthe same weekend and it really
develops skill and race tacticsquite well.
Then as you move up, the roaddevelops everything and the road
is where the money's at more orless.
From that standpoint, with theseason layup as it is, being
(30:18):
able to do a road and crossseason, especially on the
women's side of things, it worksout pretty well, making more
money most of the women makingmore money on the road versus
cross.
But then the cross specificriders, yeah, they'll make
pretty good money there as well.
So that's kind of why thosedual race seasons can work.
(30:41):
I think the mountain bike toroad is is more tricky.
Throw in cyclocross and likewhat puck's doing that, that's
real tricky.
Um PFP is kind of like expandedthat over her whole career and
season but or, sorry, her wholecareer and done so with um.
You know really good success.
But when it comes down tomanaging it, I mean.
(31:03):
But when it comes down tomanaging it, I mean, yes, I
coach riders like that, but itis.
It is not straightforward, it'snot a one-size-fits-all.
I think the biggest thing ismake sure to take your breaks.
Oh well, look at that.
Who's our special guestappearance today?
Speaker 2 (31:16):
um a very uh fond, uh uh cat of mine.
His name's sam Sammy.
He likes the meowing stages.
Speaker 1 (31:27):
The meowing stages.
Well, I feel like Miss AllieTetrick probably paid you to
have that cameo happen, butwhere were we?
Yeah, just talking aboutmanaging different disciplines
right.
You got to take your breaks inbetween seasons.
I think for especially myjunior elites that are doing
that, there's very short timeperiods between, like,
(31:51):
cyclocross worlds and then thestart of some of the junior
Nations Cup at the beginning ofthe year, the nation's cups or
the like the big races, right,and then world championships.
Then we got like a well, cyclecross actually starts a little
bit before that and we have veryshort time period to go into
cross.
So I think it's the racing yearround.
(32:11):
You got to do a very good jobof planning in breaks when you
can, um, especially like kind ofright now is a good time to
take a break If you're a juniorrace in both road, both road and
cross, and those breaks arecrucial, meanwhile keeping it
fun.
You know, at every level of thesport, even at the elite level
or the master's level, if you'reracing a bunch of road races
(32:34):
and then kind of carry thatfitness over into cross, take
your breaks, because you'll justburn out if you don't you'll
just burn out if you don't.
Speaker 2 (32:46):
Yeah, I wanted to follow up on that because I was
thinking about some of theathletes that I coach who are
dual sport athletes.
But you know, I live here inColorado.
I coach some people up in Aspenand Vail and Breckenridge who
their two sports seasons are.
I ski in the winter and I ridein the summer and you know some
interesting things about youknow balancing that.
(33:08):
That you know they're, you knowflipping switches a little bit
on how they approach theirdisciplines and you know when
it's a completely differentsport and you know, maybe not as
intense, you know the breaksdon't have to be as much.
Because they're coming off aski season they're super psyched
(33:31):
to ride their bike, or it'sgetting to October, it's too
cold and veiled a ride.
So you know, go into the gym,get strong and get ready for ski
season.
So you know that's.
That's kind of the thing that Isee a lot with my uh, a lot of
athletes I coach.
Speaker 1 (33:51):
Yeah, yeah, that's it , and I think too it's.
It's again goes back to thelike, uh, the individual level
of things.
And also, how much are youracing?
Cause it's usually the travel,the races, all this kind of
stuff.
It kind of cracks you out alittle bit more.
And so I think if you stayahead of your planning, if
you're a self-coached athlete,of when you're going to take
those breaks, kind of in theshoulder seasons of the year,
(34:14):
you can look forward to that.
You can see the light at theend of the tunnel and actually
take a break, no matter, like,how good you're feeling.
I think the mental break isprobably the most important
because physically, in betweenseasons, most masters level
riders I mean that the fatiguecan be resolved in a couple of
weeks.
At the elite level changes alittle bit, could be a little
bit longer, but I think it'smentally.
(34:36):
You need that time todecompress and take the pressure
off for, like, performing orachieving those goals.
Not everything needs to be, youknow, optimized or you don't
have to be, you know, on it allthe time.
You need to chill out a littlebit, just ride your bike and
have some easy days.
Speaker 2 (34:52):
Yeah, and you know, back to my point on the, you
know, depending on how seriouslyyou're taking it, obviously, if
you're Puck Peterson, shereally needs a break and she
really needs to manage that.
If you're just, you know, theweekend warrior and the summer
bike rider and the winter skier,you know you're getting enough
freshness and break between justthe switching of the sport.
(35:14):
So it's like completelydifferent ends of the spectrum
of course, but you know, I justthought I'd mention that.
Speaker 1 (35:20):
Yeah, no, it's definitely.
I mean it's spot on and it'sreally good to mention.
I think for the age groupers atleast the athletes that I coach
is like they think they need tobe on all the time.
So it's like when they flip theswitch, it's like they go from
like full on bike racing mode orlike like full on bike mode and
then there's like full on skimountaineering or whatever it is
(35:41):
, and it's just like whoa, whoachill.
You can like transition alittle bit more easily.
You don't have to be full tilt,full gas all in one sport
versus the other yeah, itdepends on how seriously you're
taking it.
Speaker 2 (35:54):
You know talk about training load and you know how
much recovery you need off atraining load if you're riding
six hours a week, so maybe notneeding as much of a break at
the end of that yeah, well,let's, uh, let's look ahead to
stage eight and let's start tobring this thing home here,
renee um adam.
(36:14):
Tomorrow is the day um your dayno, it's the day of the race.
This is the queen stage of theTour de France FEMS.
It is the only mountaintopfinish.
The race tops out on the Cold'Op Madelaine, which is almost
(36:38):
20 kilometers.
At 8%, this is going to takethem more than an hour to climb.
At 8%, this is going to takethem more than an hour to climb.
So we expect, you know, minutes, potentially in time gaps.
That would be a real thing tohappen.
The stage starts with a climbout of the gate 13 kilometer
(36:59):
climb.
Then it's kind of lumpy in themiddle and then you hit the
final climb at the end.
Special alert Peacock is airingthe race live in the US from
start.
So that's 740 Eastern.
I think this is the one thatyou guys want to watch the whole
stage, because this is it.
It's a Saturday, it's theweekend.
(37:21):
I say after your ride tomorrow,I want you to maximize your
recovery, park yourself on thecouch, grab some snacks and
watch the race, because it'sgoing to be fireworks for sure
and I think we will have a verygood idea of who's going to win
the overall by the end oftomorrow?
Speaker 1 (37:42):
Yep, yep, I would agree with that, and I was
thinking you were thinking it'dbe your day to take over GC on
the fantasy Tour de France, fomof X, zwift from the CTS Fantasy
League.
You're kind of crushing it,adam.
But who's your pick fortomorrow, renee?
Speaker 2 (37:59):
I'm going to go.
Speaker 1 (37:59):
I'm trying.
I'm in yellow.
I got to keep it for the nextcouple stages, but yeah, who's
your pick for tomorrow?
Speaker 2 (38:06):
I'm going to place my bets on Sarah Gigante.
She's arguably the best climberin the race.
She won the two mountain stagesat the Giro by significant gaps
, over like Rooser and in longerbikini.
Now, that wasn't those gals,weren't Demi?
(38:27):
But Gigante can win and Demican still win the overall, or
PFP can still win the overall,because Gigante is a little bit
back.
I should have to look at hertime gap today to find out.
And I was listening to thewheel talk podcast.
Um, if you guys want to nerd outtotally on the race tactics and
(38:51):
the inside baseball stuff on,uh, women's racing wheel talk is
uh, it's a pretty good one.
She had a writer diaryyesterday and she said when the
race uh route was announced lastyear, she marked her calendar
for tomorrow's stage.
She has been out uh this earlyspring.
(39:14):
She and her mom did airbnb tourto recon every stage and she is
uh on it.
So, um, my, my outside pick.
It's not really an outside, butit's uh, it's a shot.
She is 114 back on on gc.
(39:35):
That's it's not impossible.
It's an outside shot, but it'snot impossible to get up there.
Speaker 1 (39:46):
Yeah, they could let her go.
A little bit of a leash I'd sayit's an outside pick.
I mean, if there's any stagethat she could win, it's
definitely this one.
But I feel like, after seeingSquibin go up the road and I
don't know, I think the likes ofDamie, especially in PFP.
I think we'll start to flex hermuscles a little bit more.
Cassio will be there, but Imight go with the Queen Bee
(40:09):
tomorrow.
I might go with Damien.
Speaker 2 (40:12):
That is not.
It's a solid pick.
We're going to have to see.
Speaker 1 (40:18):
We shall see.
We shall see.
Well, renee, we shall seetomorrow, and I'm assuming that
you're going to be watching thefull stage in its entirety.
Speaker 2 (40:28):
You betcha.
Speaker 1 (40:29):
Stressing out at 540 mountain time.
Speaker 2 (40:33):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (40:34):
Well, I look forward to that.
I look forward to couch andsnacks and watching some more
bike racing.
Renee, thank you again for thecomplete stage summary, all the
insights and really taking thereins on this whole TDFF podcast
that CTS is so graciouslysupporting us to do.
So appreciate it.
Speaker 2 (40:54):
All right, we'll see you tomorrow.
Speaker 1 (40:56):
All righty and audience members, we will see
you back here tomorrowpost-stage.
And don't forget to just sharethis with a friend.
Like it on all the socials.
Smash that like button onYouTube if you're watching it
there.
And, yeah, keep on helping usshare this show because if you
like it, you'll see it againnext year.
(41:17):
Maybe we do some other riffsand versions of it in the future
to come.
So thanks again for all of ourlisteners.
Renee, ciao, Ciao.
Popular Podcasts
24/7 News: The Latest
The latest news in 4 minutes updated every hour, every day.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show
The Clay Travis and Buck Sexton Show. Clay Travis and Buck Sexton tackle the biggest stories in news, politics and current events with intelligence and humor. From the border crisis, to the madness of cancel culture and far-left missteps, Clay and Buck guide listeners through the latest headlines and hot topics with fun and entertaining conversations and opinions.