Ep 142: He Beat Everyone on a €900 Bike + This Is Getting Silly

We have the tech to get food delivered in 15 minutes, but we all have horror stories about buying tickets. The GameTime app gives fans the advantage. Get amazing tickets in just a few taps. Fees are included, so what you see is what you pay. And the GameTime guarantee means authentic tickets at the best price every time. Take the guesswork out of buying tickets to concerts, sports, comedy, and more with GameTime. Download the GameTime app and create an account for $20 off your first purchase. Terms apply. The people who seem to get more done than everyone else, they're not working longer hours or running on more caffeine. They've just stopped wasting time on the stuff that doesn't move work forward. Switching apps, re-explaining context, hunting for files, those aren't small inefficiencies. They're hours wasted every week. Superhuman Go gives you those hours back. From the makers of Grammarly, Go is an AI chat that sits inside every tab and tool you already use. Always available and ready to help you with what you're working on. Ask it to draft something, summarize a long thread, pull up a file, or prep you for a meeting. Go handles it without you ever leaving the page you're on. This is what it looks like when AI actually fits into your work instead of adding to it. It's like having a teammate whose only job is to help you be better at yours. Go keeps up so you can move forward. With Go working with you, you can show off what you do best. See what Superhuman Go can do at superhuman.com. We all have busy lives, and knowing when to train and when to take a rest day is often what leads to better quality, more consistent riding. Data takes a lot of the guesswork out of training, which is why we're happy to have Garmin support in today's episode. Pairing a Garmin edge head unit with a rally power meter gives you metrics like power, cadence, and left/right balance. And you'll watch your heart rate monitor layer in heart rate data that can calculate your recovery and training readiness. That means smarter sessions and fewer blocks. So thank you once again to Garmin for supporting this show. From various radar taillights to camera headlights, edge bike computers, tax trainers, to rally power pedals, Garmin cover performance and safety from every angle. Do you remember last week we talked about conspiracy theories? Hmm. We missed one. There's a new one. Oh, we didn't miss it then. If it's new. Okay, fine. It's new. It was in a podcast, obviously, because that's where all conspiracy theories originate. And it was by a pro cyclist as well, straight from the horse's mouth, I think. Still very much conspiracy, still very much in the realms of can't be proven, but this is it. Pro cyclist George Bennett, he rides for Team NSN. I think he used to be on Yumba Visma. He was talking on a podcast called The Alternative. The Alternative Commentary Collective, which sounds like, if there was going to be a conspiracy theory podcast in cycling, it would be called The Alternative Commentary Collective. Let's start there. His theory was that race organisers may be deliberately trying to influence the men's races by keeping the TV motorbikes in front of the breakaway riders right till the last minute to try and create more jeopardy. 100% true. 100% true. I've seen them. Well, is it a conspiracy? Are they doing it to try and influence the race, or are they doing it because they've got Broom Broom Moto and they're excited? I think it's more that. They're like, those guys, they live for that. They love riding their motorbike really fast on sometimes a bit closed roads. They should be closed. I had this in a race, well, I got DQ'd, actually, from Totnes2Day? Totnes2Day.com. I think. So it's a two-day race in Totnes, surprisingly. It was end of stage one. I was away in a break, one other guy, and then me and the guy got DQ'd because a car, massive Jeep, in a lane which was narrow enough, not two-way traffic, somehow it ended up on the course, and then we were stuck drafting it. We couldn't do anything. We couldn't do anything other than draft it. What are we going to do? Slow down. They were definitely looking at us in the back mirror. I had no idea if it was someone to do with the race, if we knew the other guy. Then at the end, they were like, "Well, you just stayed away because of the car," and we got DQ'd. Brutal. Which, to be fair, I think is a fair DQ, but also, why was the car allowed? I don't know. What we should have done. What do you do? Just sit up, and then you're back in the bunch anyway. The thing is, they let us start the next day, but with no result, which is just the weirdest. They accepted that it was not our fault, but a little bit. They should have gone one way or the other. I heard a rumor that the driver was your DS. The driver's not our DS because I know where the DS was. He was behind the race in an inappropriate car that had a turbo in it. Every time, if we did try to draft that car, it went, "Wooi!" and drive away. It was a bad year for drafting. I heard that was the line that you were told to say, if anyone asked. "Shh, Jimmy. Shhh. They'll come after me." People will start to believe it. Well, I think you were just too ahead of your time, because if we believe… What's his name? George Bennett. Is that his name? Yeah, George Bennett. Then actually, now it's fine. Speculation. They definitely like a little sneaky, like, "Ooh, we're getting involved in the race." They're just trying to get their shot. They've got one job. Get that shot, and you do anything to get it. Welcome to the Wild Ones podcast, the show where we chat about bike stuff. I am Jimmy, and this week, you've probably already guessed, I'm joined by Francis Cade. Hello. And producer Emily. Hello. And of course, thanks to Garmin for supporting this show. How are we all doing? Good. I've just consumed my third coffee of the day. Uh-oh. I'm feeling slightly jittery. But good. I was cruising a bonk before we started, went out for an early exercise. It's an up-and-downy day, but we'll get through it. When we first worked together, you didn't drink coffee at all. I know. I thought it was a banned thing, banned forever. Yes. I went through a period of getting addicted to Red Bull, and I got myself off that, and now I've replaced it, unfortunately. But we can't all be perfect all of the time. Do you want to know what Emily has said to me twice in the last three weeks? Yes. "Should we get a coffee machine at home?" I'm like, "What? I don't have one." She's like, "What?" I was looking at coffee machine as well. I've decided it's too much effort to be pouring the water in the things, pushing the thing down. That's a lot of work. So I want the one-button one. I was going to say, a typical home coffee machine is significantly more work than that. No, no, no, no, no. This would be one of those crap ones. Like the pod ones? Yeah, pod one, pod one. Yeah, they're good. I had one the other day, which was Dunkin' Donuts coffee. The coffee snobs will be very upset at this fact. Giles will be. He's a coffee snob. He went into Pedal Mafia, the bike shop that we swing by sometimes. They have a coffee machine, and he cleaned it for them. He was like, "This is unacceptable," and just started doing stuff. And you meant to report places like that to trading standards? Yeah, too much limescale. Stop using tap water in your coffee machine. It has to be fully filtered. Mm-hmm, mm-hmm. Bottled water only. Okay. Shall I get into what's coming up on today's show? Yes, please. Probably. Please save us. Right. We're talking ultra racing and why your bike shouldn't stop you from giving one a go. We'll also be chatting about the World Tour staffer who's just been banned from cycling for 20 years. And finally, what the hell is bra maxing? I've been reading about it all week. We'll tell you about it in a sec. Let's get into the show. First, if you've ever thought, "I'd love to do a long-distance cycling event, but I don't have the right bike." This story might change your mind. Someone has just finished first in a 638-kilometer ultra race on a 900-euro commuter bike. His name is Florentine-- Thanks for giving me this name. Florentine Spreigel, and the race was the Vienna Trieste Supergrave, a smaller European self-supported ultra across the Alps. 638 Ks, 1,000-- 14,000 meters of climbing. It crosses Austria, Slovenia, and Germany. So this event specifically says that it doesn't have winners or rankings, but Florentine did cross the line first in about 75 hours. And I would say anyone who's been at the pointy end of a park run will tell you a win is a win, even if it's an official-- A park run? Is that what you said? Yeah. Everyone knows it's a race. Yeah. It's all-- Like-- It's a race if you-- If you, like, slightly accelerate and you're riding with someone else's race, which is how it is. It's the same on a commute on your bike. Everyone around knows they're racing. The north-back world champs. Yeah. You can choose to not engage that day, but-- Well, you're just losing then, aren't you? Yeah. Here's what the organizers had to say. At Checkpoint Graz, who was the outsider, the surprise deep in the Slovenian mountains, while the early favorites still led, while everyone watched the front of the race-- Florentine simply kept moving. Then one by one, the early names left the official route, and the rider nobody would have picked rode all the way to the sea. Very poetic. so the bike this is the bit i'm looking forward to the organizers shared photos but annoyingly we can't actually tell what brand it is i've really been trying to work out what it is i slipped into his dms and asked but he hasn't got back to me yet so we'll insert it here if he does come back but otherwise take take your guesses in the comments i guess so it looks like it's an entry-level aluminium drop bar gravel bike it's got mechanical disc brakes it's very much a practical everyday bike like you would expect a typical normal cyclist to be riding we should be able to find out what this is you know when you have you seen enemy of the state i watched it the other day where they hack into the cctv in the location they're like zoomify enhancify give us a 360 and then they go to like a really pixely cctv camera and they're like zoomify and they zoom in more and then it's jack black and then it goes and you can see what it is so that's what we'll do for next episode we'll find out what this bike is that exactly sounds like all of the buzzwords of adobe photoshop we have the tools that only extreme high-level government in enemy of the state had at our fingertips now jimmy for a small subscription price very expensive based on the bills that we get from adobe worth it though and in the meantime i'll just work on the plan b which is hopi response on instagram hopefully priorities yeah it's too late now we've we're doing the podcast now it's done it might be listen i'm editing tomorrow it might be there um no confirmed weight either i would like to know the answer to that but light enough for florentine to lift above his head although having a look at the pictures not objectifying him he's got impressive guns for a cyclist oh that guy's that guy's yeah run out of words don't even know how to describe him the sliding into the dms makes sense now outrageous where's your wedding band purely professional i am very happy to see a non-race winning race winner with a normal cyclist bike no cleats and just enjoying being out on his bike this is what it's about thank you i think he is wearing cleats i think it's it's like the clippy in one side oh that always facing the wrong way let's go through the pictures there's one that shows the bottom of his shoes and i think he has cleats on yeah if you need the flat pedal side then you know the pedal will be facing the wrong way and then if you need the clip pedal side the flat pedal bit will be facing up yeah okay okay he was wearing cleats i'll allow that because cleats are great i think the key the key to his success is in the poetic uh summary here look he while everyone watch florentine simply kept moving that is the key it's just you just i i think like 80 of ultra is just that not stopping do you not recall that was it like two weeks ago we talked about a guy that won an ultra whose methodology was to sleep three hours a night in a hotel or something wasn't it was eight hours a night it was a full night's sleep and he won what have we learned from these two scenarios he's the 20 jimmy he's the 20 moral of the story there are no rules yeah there is no spoon um i found out some extra details about florentine's ride having stalked his instagram purely professionally again um he had two punctures over the ride he had to change his brake pads because in his words i haven't braked that much all year he got lost in slovenia spent three hours covering four kilometers and had to climb over multiple electric fences which quote was painful when your bike is made out of conductive metal this but this guy has been on an absolute adventure apparently spent eight to ten hours pushing the bike this sounds like he's had loads of stops this is the opposite of my theory right i have to re completely relearn everything i know about ultra i think you just have to stop loads don't try to go the right way and you end up there well interesting it's saying that a lot of the main competitors went off the route and he's saying he presumably he stayed on the route but he went over electric fences it might be off the route as in stopped right like um oh didn't they put a series of electric fences on the route and everyone else has gone oh you know i think the route's wrong oh god dq he's gone right just do it let's do it you're pointing out a flaw in my logic it's probably one of those self-supported things when you wait you choose your own route is that what you're saying is it that i don't know i don't know enough about this event sometimes there's bits yeah we don't yeah it depends on the event so apparently the winning time was 18 slower this year versus last year despite the route being the same the organizers said a massive difference was the weather electric fences maybe they also the electric fences last year apparently it was rains and storms this year heat and drought question i have for you guys is what would you prefer when you're doing an event like this excessive heat or excessive rain oh heat can get pretty heat's more dangerous but excessive rain and hours of cycling is guaranteed sore bits it's it's even with a good chamois and stuff it's really bad either way i think i think if i had to pick one i would pick wet as long as was i allowed am i allowed to prepare for it i'm allowed to get like a rain jacket and some some waterproof trousers some mud guards you still get wet though don't you yeah but it's manageable yeah i would say you're allowed to you're a competitor in this race you're looking at the forecast presumably as long as the forecast is correct you can do whatever you want what would you prefer it to be wet would you oh no yeah wet i'm going wet i'll go wet well the the problem with wet comes from like visibility and like safety on the road because it's always sketchy when cars aren't really looking properly when they've got their wipers flapping around i'd still pick wet though i think i think both me and jimmy would just pick hotel yeah five star with a spa we'd be off the roof imagine the electric fences in the rain as well oh extra dangerous um i thought of another fun question for you picture the scene you're about to ride a self-supported on ultra you get two cheat codes that you can use from the following list everything else is normal what are you picking here's the list the perfect bike full health and fitness optimal food and nutrition great quality sleep you still have to sleep let's say a minimum of four hours but it just it's a bang and sleep perfect routing navigation optimal weather maximum mental resilience or perfect look i.e no punctures or mechanicals ah bottom two maximum mental resilience and then you don't need to sleep because you're so double hard and then perfect luck no punches mechanicals because that is the the most it's the non-stop i still stand by despite all the evidence going against me i stand by really it's just don't stop too much my two are very different optimum food and nutrition great quality sleep because i work on the basis everything else everything's fine if you're if you're getting your food in and it's good and you you're fueled and you're rested you can make everything else work but then you change naps yeah then you go and get another one no there isn't one i probably already carrying one yeah you would wouldn't you you prepared person well i thought exactly the same as francis mental resilience and look because mental resilience will get you through bad sleep bad weather punctures in mechanicals to an extent yeah but if you're eating well and you're sleeping well you're not going to need mental resilience you're just going to be having a great time that is true you're just going to be happy this is lovely la la la oh my chain snapped oh well just have a little detour to the lovely little town local and have a little coffee whilst i'm there and a little sleep that's true i didn't say you your your aim is to win i said you're about to ride one i think jimmy jimmy's on a jolly yeah i'm a jolly yeah i'm not trying to win which is fine it's in true mr demotivator fashion yeah i'm having fun i also asked friend of the show chris hall because he has completed a lot of ultras what would he go for out of this list he said fitness and sleep hands down for me so sleep he's found that on races if he gets four hours sleep a night he's overall faster it aids in recovery next day he'd take guaranteed four hours proper good quality deep sleep he said he's done badlands numerous times he's done it with very little sleep he finished in four and a bit days he's done it with very good sleep every night he did it in three and a bit days and he says the conditions and the routes were similar both times he puts it down to the better quality sleep the other thing is fitness and general overall good health he says it just makes things easier so atlas mountain race he did he was ill badlands he did very fatigued last year because he just finished bikepacking around the perimeter of britain uh he says he just it just makes your chances of actually finishing much slimmer so he thinks if much like you jimmy if you go into a race with full health and fitness the mental resilience is already there boom do you want to know when i um filmed transcontinental the winner his rule guy called christoph was four hours of stoppage time per 24 hours and that's including sleep So his like getting food on the route, he'd be like, get off his bike, throw it, run into a shop, like quickly grab some time and then like be back on the bike as quick as possible. Because then he'd have more, he'd have three hours, 45 minutes of lovely sleep in a hotel that he definitely booked that day. There was a thing that used to happen in the ultra space, more the ultra running and ultra triathlon space would have been kind of 2010 to 2015. And the rule was you didn't sleep for longer than 20 minutes at all. So no matter the duration, you would only do 20 minute stints. You might do like a handful of them over a day, but it's just 20 minutes, get going again. It was, I think it was something to do with not allowing your body to like shut down. But it was like meant to be the peak amount of rest you can get. Sounds horrible, doesn't it? A cat nap. Yeah. Next, there's talk of an illegal new aero technique sweeping the women's pro peloton and it's being dubbed bra maxing. Oh, this makes more sense now. Well, I, you know, when it was, this is coming up in the show, I was like, what does this relate to? Well, you've heard of lux maxing against my will. Everything I've learned about lux maxing. It is really against my will, but here we are in. Francis knows all about it. 2026. It's a manosphere term, I believe. I think you hammer your face. Yeah. Hammer it. Which I've obviously been doing for, what I think for a 56 year old, I look pretty like it's good. It's good. Well, your most impressive feature is your very established jaw muscles that you've been working on for a while now. Just like with all that aggressive chewing. Yeah. I use the. Special machine, jaw size. Yeah. It's like an electric fence for your jaw. Okay. Well, I'm thankful to say bra maxing is nothing like that, but teams at the Tour de France, Famavec, Swift have been complaining of rule breaking. It's led to the UCI reportedly ordering body checks happen before the individual time trial stage this week. The rumour is that some riders might be wearing overly padded bras to create makeshift aero fairings. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. That's smooth airflow and reduce drag. Some studies have shown that optimal air fairings can save nearly a second per kilometre. And we've seen riders in the men's peloton using fairings in the past. Apparently it's also been going on in the women's peloton for a while too. Dutch outlet Wieler Flitz says similar concerns were raised after the Paris Olympic time trial in 2024 and at last year's Giro. Currently, it is again. Against UCI rules, you're not allowed to wear clothing or accessories that modify your morphology to gain aerodynamic advantage. So the news broke of this alleged bra tampering on Sunday. And in less than a week, the organisers have ordered these checks to be carried out. But the Riders Union is rightly a little bit concerned over rider privacy. They've asked for clarity around how organisers plan to. Police this. Reports earlier this week suggested teams wanted female commissaires to carry out checks in a private tent. At 2am. Producer Emily here with a small update on this story. On Wednesday morning, there were photos circulating of a male official inspecting the riders' chests in broad daylight with cameras on them. One commentator, Jack Lindsay, put it very eloquently, I think. He said the UCI's new apparel inspection policy appears every bit as respectful and professionalised. As you'd imagine. Nothing says modern women's sport quite like officials inspecting athletes' sports bras for suspected aerodynamic advantages. Elite women's cycling deserves better than becoming the punchline. It's getting out of hand, isn't it? Is this just another example of the maximum handlebar ruling thing? In the sense that, is this a rule that has been. Is this a rule that has been brought in with the men's peloton in mind and maybe not enough thought has been given to what the potential nuances and complications and ramifications are of actually policing the rule across all of the people it's going to affect, i.e. the men's and women's peloton? Yes. It sounds like it, doesn't it? Yes. It's not a point where they're all sat around in. In their rulemaking chamber and going, oh, I think that we should ban chest fairings. And someone not in the corner going, um, well, what about women? They sort of have natural chest fairings. Are we. Presumably that's okay. It's just a natural advantage. But what about push-up bras? What about padded bras? How much padding are we allowing? Do we ban surgical enhancements? These sound like flippant questions, but you have to. You have to assume that as humans, if you bring in a rule, they're going to try and sort of max it, right? Get as close to the line without going over the line. So I don't understand why, like, in less than a week, we've gone from people highlighting this rule to, oh, I don't know what we'll do. Make them go all in a tent and, like, get their bits out. Like, I don't know. It just seems badly thought through, perhaps. They could do with just, like, pause. Then next year. Figure it out. And then next year, implement something well thought through, perhaps. Maybe just do that for most of your decisions, UCI. And then you wouldn't get into such pickles. Think about it at the rule-making stage, though. But when they made the rules, women didn't ride bikes. That was a joke for everyone, by the way. My concern with this is, and I know where maybe we might be seen as adding fuel to the fire to this because we're covering it. But, like, ultimately, this is an easy win headline. It's sensational. It's about boobies. It's going to catch fire. And when they already have so many things disadvantaging them in terms of investment in the sport and sponsorship and coverage and all of that kind of thing, I just feel like it's one more thing that really disproportionately affects them. Also, the men are using fairings. So if you look at the photos from last month's time trial at the men's Tour de France, multiple teams have stuff stuffed down. michael rasmussen i want to say who like took his weight losing to the extreme and would do the questionable things i should probably look this up what like removing toes maybe not that extreme well who knows they're not that heavy though are they but i suppose if you're drilling a um drilling holes in a derailleur to save weight then maybe you drill holes in your toes as well and i just said performance enhancing drugs oh that'll do it but he wouldn't have had to do as many drugs if he just chopped off his earlobes um right okay let's talk about the tour de france fam the racing part of it um we're recording this on tuesday afternoon so there actually hasn't been much racing so far unfortunately and uh we're even more hindered by the fact that we're not getting full stage coverage again the coverage has gone up in scale since last year but we're still not completely there highlights so far stage one and stage two was the vibus domination yellow for a second stage win which is pretty sick and like in a different stratosphere to everyone else like like i i can't it's i can't even explain how different it it feels compared to everyone else she is in a different league yeah her power numbers are absolutely wild as well we had two days of domination and then a little change up of a breakaway win always good to see i don't think that the motor bikes were involved there because uh they weren't even at the race until the last 70k and she broke away from 85k so there's no um there's no conspiracy there but uh a good win for uno x and sigrid haug set part of me feel like feels like it's a shame that it's only a one-week race i know that right now you know that's what's seen as best from an organization perspective i think also a rider perspective as well as well because they already have such a packed calendar and calendar there is definitely a they don't want to push it beyond stretch it beyond its means too quickly but as a fan it would be really nice to see more i'm really looking forward to some of the hillier stages in the mountain stages and just seeing the the gc contest play out i've got no idea where it's going to go you know last year we were so convinced that it would be demi but then we had pauline entering with this incredible palmara's background and she just absolutely wiped the floor with everyone i think she started off this year like last year which is basically just keep under the radar until it's time to do some stuff and we know that she has the power to just absolutely obliterate people on her climb we've got mont von two this year happening um she might just obliterate it or maybe demi's been doing some extra work to kind of shut that down so she didn't get caught out twice maybe someone else will come in it's it's going to be exciting to see yeah yeah the best yet to come i do feel like a couple of extra stages i do i do see your point a couple extra stages would just allow their just to boost the elevation the profiles in the latter back end of the race to really open up some options for who can and can't and and and what might be put in the mix sorry i was gonna say from a rider perspective it it really adds an element of pressure isn't it because like it's like don't f**k up you you do not have many stages as a gc rider to win things are so marginal and there's even less time to sort of make a mark so it is really like go go all in it does make sure every stage is absolutely full-on doesn't it madness which is good but i think it will happen it just has to happen slowly doesn't it because a lot of the teams will they'll be they'd imagine being like now you've got three weeks and there's smaller teams there that are uh like with danny we were looking at some of the team bikes and uh some of the teams just have less funding and you can tell from the bikes that they have yeah um which is obviously a shame uh and a team like that suddenly being asked to do a three-week race that's such a big ask so i just think it's getting longer right isn't it a stage longer than it was when it was launched yes yes you're right francis this was the point i was trying to make and didn't make very articulately that ultimately you you don't want to stretch people further than they're ready for you know it's you kind of need like a bit of a push then investment then a bit of a push and then investment stretch it too far and it'll go pop but it would be nice to see one day extra day sneak in an extra day yeah exactly just keep doing it and then live coverage what i would definitely rather see is live coverage of all stages oh that that's what the conversation should be not bra maxing it should be why isn't the race on yeah like even on french tv like what are you doing well this is it because um so all are chenui who uh is one of the presenters for tnt she's been become very vocal on instagram and she's saying you know i'm probably going to get in trouble for this but why aren't we showing the race and i think the reason that she's saying that because she doesn't want tnt to get pushback for not showing the race because her point is it's not up to the broadcasters it's up to the aso the race organizers they organize all of the tv coverage and then they sell those rights so if they're not putting on the tv coverage then broadcasters can't buy it so she's locked in this impossible position of saying i really want to cover this race i really want to talk about this race my broadcaster wants to put it on tv and yet they haven't got a full program to show allow online creators to use race footage like the nfl and then it will be successful yeah we'll put the race of coverage on first and then allow them to take it yeah yeah there's plenty to go around the highlights help like it gets more people than watching your full race streams like it's it's very prohibitive and silly yeah but it's been a good race so far i'm looking forward to watching the rest i can't wait to see them get up in the mountains i thoroughly enjoy it when you passionately get your point across thanks so thank you for that while we're talking about the women's peloton there's another story this week that caught our eye the women's world tour team uae team limad has found itself awkwardly caught up in a doping story former giro stage winner danilo napolitano has been handed a 20-year ban from cycling 20 years that's huge italy's anti-doping authorities found he possessed and administered banned substances while working with one of the country's leading junior teams here's where it gets awkward he'd recently been working as a freelancer for the uae women's team italian star elisa longo borghini so naturally it raised a few eyebrows team uae said it had no idea he was under investigation they insist the alleged offenses happened before he joined them he said he never attended races with the team and stressed there's no suggestion of any wrongdoing by uae themselves napolitano has since removed all references to the team from his social media it's funny timing this one because only last week uae boss the men's team boss someone doesn't want us talking about this they released the wasp sorry about that um sorry yes we just got attacked by a wasp killer bee saved it though yes where was i this is funny timing because last week the boss of the men's team maro gianetti was defending himself over historic doping scandals and he basically said you don't know what your children are doing in their bedrooms and you don't know what riders are doing at home basically i didn't know anything and now the women's team are effectively making a very similar argument saying you know they simply didn't know and i think maybe the pro teams need to add a question to their job application which is have you ever been or are you currently under investigation related to any doping accusations what if you just lie yeah well i don't know do a check the problem is that judging by the history of professional cycling they might not have any applicants left i guess they definitely just depressing isn't it why just go and do something else am i allowed to make an inappropriate joke please so following on from francis francis's ds encouraging to cheat the reason he's now in media he's because he abides by his own rules of do something else don't get my ds in trouble he's nice he still works in cycling and definitely did not encourage cheating yeah but it's what it's why you don't work in well that you do work in cycling but you don't work in racing anymore because you had to take a side because i'm banned yeah from the that's two day incident yeah 21 years yeah the longest ban that's ever been heard of oh dear me i have something else i wanted to talk about but i'm going to keep it brief we receive a lot of emails to this show from riders asking why there aren't more road bikes that can handle larger weight limits so like over 100 kilograms 220 pounds i believe that is it's something that we addressed back in episode 102 i will leave a link to that show if you're interested in that chat But one of the most liked comments on that clip was. it's buying wheels that is the most difficult part as a heavier rider. So I thought I should mention a new set of carbon wheels that I came across this week. This is not paid for. They haven't even got in touch with us. It's literally just something I saw on a bike radar article as I was scrolling through. They're made by a company called Tune. They're called the Nanos and they do a gravel and a road version, I believe. And one of their selling points is that they can accommodate a maximum rider weight limit of 120 kilos, which is 164 pounds and a maximum system weight of 130 kilos, which is 286 pounds. It isn't a review. We haven't tested them personally and they're not cheap, but we keep getting asked for recommendations for bikes that can handle heavier rider weight limits. So I thought it might be worth highlighting. Yeah, it's a little bit of a shame they're so expensive, but to be fair, Tune, the stuff that they do is astronomically expensive. So I'm surprised these wheels are that price. I would have thought they would have been double that. Prices start from 2,290 euros and goes up to 3,240 euros. Bargain. A thing that loads of people just don't consider, it's the same with custom frames, but there's loads of wheel builders who will make you wheels and they're probably independent. And a lot of them are quite small businesses, so it's cool to support them anyway. But there's loads of companies out there that will just make you a set of wheels to specification. And it doesn't take that long and it's probably the same price or cheaper than a lot of factory built wheels. So worth checking out. Who's got good companies? Strada. Strada. Good guys. There's like two of them, three of them. They make wheels, have been doing for years. The quality of a wheel is not just the components, it's really someone putting it together really well. Tensioning it well. Good advice. On the subject of tech stuff, we had this last minute. I can't remember. We've spoken about this before, Jimmy. Shimano 13 speed could require a new free hub standard again. Again, even because there's been a leak. All right. So yeah, it looks as though bike radar have said that there's some kind of leaked details on a website somewhere other, which is suggesting that. So there's going to be, SRAM XDR, Shimano 11 speed hyperglide, Shimano 12 speed micro spline and whatever they're calling the Shimano 13 speed free hub. And I'll be honest, I'm kind of over it. I'm like over all of this one extra gear and one extra free hub and squeeze this in and squeeze that in. Can't we just, let's just all go back to 11 speed. No, 10 speed. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. That's annoying. Just stop. Just stop. Yeah. Okay. Just because I have all 12, 12 speed now. That's what matters. No more, no more. It's been fun, but that's it. That's all I have to say on the matter. I really don't care. One more goes to 11 though. No, because it's not 11. I tried watching the new spinal tap. Yeah. I couldn't get through it. Have you watched the old spinal tap? Many times. Okay. We'll just check in, you know, just to be sure. So you might, you know, might've gone straight in on the new one. This is weird. Sorry. I tuned out during all of that bike chat. Was there a link there or did Francis just completely sidestep? Yeah, that was a link. Oh, was it? Okay. Fine. Continue. You're saying it should just go to 11. That's the spinal tap. Oh, okay. Sorry. I might get the guy's shirt. I rate it. He wears like a green skeleton sort of thing, doesn't he? What's that movie that you love, Emily? With a journalist boy. Oh, Almost Famous. Almost Famous. Yeah. Same vibes to me. Yeah. It's like my top one. Favorite film, probably. Top one. That and Bend It Like Beckham. Also a great film. Yeah. Yeah. My two favorite passions, reporting and football. And you, there's a point you're a football reporter. Correct. Shall we move on? Yes, please. As we announced the other week, I can't remember when it was. We finally have got the Cade eBay store up again, so I can clear up some bits and pieces for you. We very happily sold a lovely cube that Francis rode across, I think, India. It was India, wasn't it? He rode across India on the cube. And a lovely father bought it for his son, I believe, and sent us a message saying, listen to the podcast, which is amazing. And I am very happy that this person got that bike at the price they paid for it. And I hope they have a lovely time with it. However, commercially, there's a problem. It actually ended up losing us money. Oh, dear. So once you factor in VAT fees from absolutely everyone and everything, the fact that shipping a bike now costs £75. What? What? And all of the other associated things. You listed this without just working out the postage first? Well, it was always about 25 quid. And no, it was verified beforehand it was going to cost 25 quid. And then it turns out that it's not going to cost 25 quid, especially because now all of the delivery companies also changed how they measure things. They now do longest length plus girth, whereas historically it used to be the longest two lengths added together. That's how the UCI is going to enforce this new boob rule as well. Girth. Girth measurements. Yeah. I can't help feel that this is a fluff up on the finance department. Department of one. Yeah, it is. Jimmy Nichols. Correct. I love those wheels. Now they're gone forever. Well, someone's got them. Yeah. A young lad's got them. And he's going to have fun. Oh, that's good then. I'm sure he said it was going to be a cyclocross bike, like a race bike. Oh, lovely. Well, I mean, all's well that ends well, really. Exactly. Just don't do it again. Do you think this could be another reason why bike brands are moving away from cheaper entry level stuff? A hundred percent. A hundred percent. The overheads are just so massive now. It must be so hard for when you're building a business strategy, and a finance-y person is building a strategy for the margins and the course to market of a bike that is under a thousand pounds, and you see it in a way that it can be profitable and worthwhile. It's absolutely bonkers. Look, we don't have the economy of scale that they have, and you know, they're not paying eBay fees and stuff like that. I know it doesn't, it's not quite comparable, but. What is actually suggesting to me is that the secondhand market is going to be king for the sub, well, probably sub 2000 pounds. And that's where you're buying and selling locally, not doing what we are doing, where we're attempting to ship it all over the place. I think a lot of people will use things like Facebook marketplace and someone close to them will end up buying it. In which case you can avoid the whole shipping thing. You can do it a little bit cheaper. I think the cheapest I managed to find it subsequently is about 50 quid. Plus you obviously have to have a box. Fortunately, we've got loads of boxes. Otherwise you've got to pay an extra 20 quid for a bike box as well. Oh, great. Cool. Glad to hear the eBay store is going well. It is. It is. I just, Jimmy also sold all my Pokemon cards under the Cade media and they're all gone. I would like to, do you have some? I think they're in the studio. Chris Hall messaged me, friend of the channel, about his Pokemon cards that he found and he's had them like, rate it. I won't say how much they're worth, but Chris is a billionaire now. There's nothing here. He texts you from the Bahamas. They're definitely not here. Dude, so much of my stuff has just gone missing. Well, this is, you should have taken it with you if it was valuable or put it into storage. I probably did, but I just lost. Oh, right. I'm going to get us back on track. Francis, can you finish us off for today? So we're going to finish off with a couple of unpopular cycling opinions. And the first one is from Raj. He says, big fan of the podcast. I'm all for riding however, and whatever you want, but we have to be honest. I'm not a big fan of cycling. And acknowledge there are a lot of unwritten rules you have to follow to be accepted as a true Lycra roadie. When someone is curious about what is cool or if some mechanical thing is normal or how they can improve fitness, just saying it doesn't matter. Just ride your bike more was annoying and counterproductive. Ultimately it misdirects people who want to be accepted within the roadie culture. And it fails to educate the rider about their own fitness or how their equipment works. Bonus unpopular opinion. I've heard just ride your damn bike. - Way more from other riders with less expensive bikes who seem to be in a weird way, more elitist than the guys with carbon fiber bikes. In my experience, I've genuinely never seen a guy who rides a carbon bike scoff at a steel frame, but I've seen many people who ride steel retro bikes scoff and look down on carbon fiber bikes or people who spend their dental earnings on a hub that sounds like a thousand dying mosquitoes. - Oh, there's a lot of points in this. - Yeah. Where do we start? Where do we start? Do we start in order? His first point, unwritten rules and are we doing newbies a disservice by not educating them on unwritten rules? - Well, there's two very different things there. One is learning how your bike works and learning how stuff works in general, and that is always a good idea and that should always be encouraged. The other is trying to fit in with some people who, uh, well, I they're acting funny than the kind of the twats aren't they i guess it depends what he's talking about so he says we have to be honest and acknowledge that there are a ton of unwritten rules you have to follow to be accepted as a true lycra roadie it misdirects people who want to be accepted within the roadie culture when you just say it doesn't matter just ride your bike more are they talking about bullshit like shave your legs and put your glasses over your straps and wear your socks probably precisely the right length on your calves and that kind of stuff i don't want to hang out with people if they're judgmental agreed i just feel like there's a fine like i understand what he's saying but also i don't want to be the person that perpetuates that kind of stuff sorry reg no what do you think jimmy i do see how some people want to fit in and not be on feel you know be on the edge and usually the easiest way is just to buy the same brands because then you know you're probably getting the right stuff but you know i'm obviously going to be aligned with you guys and say well just do what you want to do but the chance if you're around the right people they won't care what you do and if you are around the right people and you ask them for support they will give it to you agreed yes that is a very good point i think maybe what raj is saying is like you have to know the rules to then decide what you want to um adhere to i guess i think also like the position we are in with this platform i don't feel comfortable perpetuating stuff that uh is just like old elitism you know but i think it's a very good point i think it's a very good point there is a difference between the platform we have and just making a group of people mates or joining a club and kind of making mates with people and go like oh why do people do this or what's what's this about or whatever so maybe it's like a private conversation to have florentine at the start of this podcast is a great example of it i agree you would there are many people which look at him and go ah he's just a he's just a guy that rides a bike he's not going to be any good and he's just won a race that you can't win literally you can't win that race and he's just yeah what a legend he has broken all the rules exactly literally all the rules he's got like a basic bike he hasn't got any socks on or not no socks that we can visibly see he's got biceps he's got biceps he's breaking all of the rules and yet he is better than you because he turned up for that race and he won it so was that directed at raj no no it was just it was directed at uh haters yeah yeah the haters not not raj not raj i think if you're if you need help in something if someone isn't giving you help they're not the right people like if it's a if it's a genuine request for assistance because you want to know more understand more be educated if they're not willing to do that they're the wrong people find better people i find in any social group there are people who get a real kick out of exclusion and elitism as well and they are the people who really thrive on these like unwritten rules that separate create it's the status game thing that francis was talking about the other week it's a way of differentiating status but that has to be the message to raj try to not play those games it's impossible because everything is one but try just like just focus on being nice to other people having fun enjoying yourself and then you find the right people yes it'll just happen but maybe that's a really like i also however feel really lucky that we have such a good group of friends and we don't have to try and we don't have to judge each other and i don't know it's just easy um but i don't know how i ended up in that situation so i don't know what the advice would be especially if raj probably has loads of good friends but they don't ride bikes so then you're like oh hang on i want to ride bikes how would i find those people it's hard shall we go to his next point which was in the second bit uh people who people who ride steel bikes but scoff at carbon bikes versus people who ride carbon bikes and scoff at and i he is he has a very good point the spectrum is a horseshoe and there are definitely some very people who wear uh jorts who uh are just as judgmental as the ones who wear the bib shorts bib jorts uh do not care for either of them yeah it goes back to it goes back around the horseshoe to do what you want wear what you want ride what you want doesn't it it is hard though isn't it it's so easy to say like do whatever you want because no one else can impact you but they just do don't know well it's funny it's we we we talk the talk but do we walk the walk because when we're going for rides what are we wearing most of the time well i have to wear our kit all the time so i guess that makes the decision easy but i think the point is that we have chosen to wear that yeah but his point is we don't have to wear our kit all the time we have to wear our kit all the time we have to wear our yeah but his point is if you don't know the rules in the first place you can't make a decision about whether you want to fit in or stand out or you know we are making a decision based on confidence that we're happy to say the rules one day or we're going to conform to the rules but not because we care about the rules another day because we have all of the information raj is saying if you're a newbie and you don't understand all of these unwritten rules you can't walk into a room with tiny little socks on and be confident about it you'll walk in the room and people will laugh at you and you don't understand why i guess is what he's saying if you i'm gonna probably uh back up his point now if you have a drop bar road bike or if you have a drop bar bike that you ride on a road whether you wear lycra or not you're a roadie come at me and everything done with confidence looks good yeah man and if people want to laugh at you they're probably not the people you want to hang around with anyway don't waste your time on honestly do not waste your time time trying to impress people if i was going to join a club if at any point within that journey of being in a club no no matter how like say i've been in a club for two years and then all of a sudden some new senior people come through and they start telling me that i'm doing stuff wrong i'm just gonna leave i'm not i'm not i'm never gonna hang around in a club for loyalty if if what they are telling me is against my personal beliefs or doesn't uh assist me in what i'm offering i'm not saying he's part of a club i'm not saying he's part of a club i'm not saying he's part of a club i'm just talking generally i think i think people become too loyal to stuff that they don't necessarily like if if you are not being served by something that you are choosing to represent then don't be part of it leave find a different club find better people i agree i have written down i've started to uh put post-it notes all around my life now and one of them i have it's very annoying sorry one of them i have written down um protect your attention like it's money you know when something stops being fun or when something stops serving you then cut it off like scrolling yeah all of those things unless it's some little bears i do quite a lot of those ones um or or to take it on to a really serious note toxic family members but that's a whole different debate or any toxic like people in your life who just shouldn't be there and i've got friends who i know they have people in their lives who are you can see well it's easier to see from the outside isn't it and you're like why just don't don't do that don't kill them but remove them no wait that's also okay no uh just unfriend them on social media exile death by x no not death by exile uh remove them from your attention it's easier said than done of course it is like like in black mirror where they they pixelate them but in real life we can update the oakley matters with that feature so i don't have to see jimmy anymore you just be pixelated i'm all for it do you think that's one of the reasons that we get on though because we're all quite black and white people like that it's it's just about finding your people isn't it i think so yeah because i don't have to try around you guys yeah sorry i'll push you harder though i'll make it work for a goddamn damn friendship yeah agreed yeah sometimes sometimes i think with jimmy that our relationship's too easy no this is gonna be a good thing i think that our relationship's too easy i'm like oh things are going really well we're we're on 12 years together now and sometimes i'm like oh maybe everything's too good and i've started to get in my head now i wake up we go to sleep i say good night i go to sleep and then about 20 minutes later i wake up and go i forgot to give jimmy a kiss good night and now he's going to be secretly crying in bed so then i wake up and i'm like why did you wake him up and then he's like why have you woken me up i'm like because i didn't give you a kiss but it's because i'm terrified that he's secretly sad crying your eyes out so now every night you give me a kiss so that you don't cry your eyes out no so so you don't wake me up yeah absolutely bonkers yeah minds are human minds what are they like can we wrap this yeah yeah let's do it oh wait it's me if you have a question a dilemma or hot taking you can send it to wowwantspodcast at kmedia.co.uk or WhatsApp us on plus447-860-860213. And until then, like, subscribe and other stuff. Yep. We'll see you next week. Bye.