The World Cup of Cycling: A Casual Fan's Guide to the Tour de France

Welcome back to Spoke & Soul, the home of the essential athlete. In this episode, Terrance and Anthony dive deep into the biggest annual spectacle in cycling: the Tour de France and the Tour de Femmes. If you have ever watched the Tour and felt overwhelmed by the technical jargon, this conversation is for you. We strip away the complexity to break down the race from a casual cyclist's perspective.

We decode the true meaning behind the iconic leader jerseys—from the Yellow jersey down to the fan-favorite Polka Dot "Hills Pay the Bills" jersey. We also tackle a common misconception: how an inherently individual sport relies completely on an intricate 8-person team framework. Drawing parallels to virtual training stages on Zwift (like Alpe d'Huez) and strategy in marathon running, we share personal stories about riding in the local trenches with our friend Skip to illustrate what a true "domestique" looks like. Finally, we pull back the curtain on the unsung heroes of the Tour—the grueling, fast-paced world of the mechanic crews managing thousands of bikes behind the scenes.

Episode Highlights

• The Pit Crew of Cycling: Appreciating the massive behind-the-scenes workload of mechanics who wash, inspect, and maintain thousands of pro bikes under extreme pressure.
• The Virtual Bridge: How training on platforms like Zwift builds a real-world connection to legendary Tour stages, route elevations, and physical motivation.
• The Million-Piece Parade: Exploring the massive scale of the Tour's opening parade, the international fanbase, and why starting the race outside of France creates a more inclusive cycling community.
• Decoding the Jerseys: A breakdown of the race's distinct leader categories, including the Yellow (Lowest Accumulated Time), Green (Sprints), Polka Dot (King of the Mountains), and White (Best Young Rider) jerseys.
• The Anatomy of a Team: How sprinters, domestiques, and General Classification (GC) contenders sacrifice individual glory for a collective win, highlighted by Tadej Pogačar gifting stage victories to his teammate Del Toro.
• The Human Shield: Relating pro team tactics to local recreation rides, remembering how our friend Skip acts as a real-life domestique by blocking the wind and pushing the group up tough inclines.
• Mastering the Breakaway: Analyzing the elite strategy required to pull away from the peloton and hold a high-speed gap, drawing parallels to front-runner spacing gaps witnessed at local marathons like Jamestown and Providence.
• The Bucket List Destination: Wrapping up with the ultimate dream of traveling abroad to experience the incredible European cycling culture firsthand on iconic routes in France and Portugal.

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Creators and Guests

AS

Host

Anthony Sanders

Host

Terrance Jackson

Terrance, a dedicated father of three daughters, leads a dynamic life that revolves around his passions for running and cycling. While his professional path is rooted in the technology field, his core belief is in the profound importance of nurturing relationships. Terrance thrives in the art of building connections, making it an area of expertise that he wholeheartedly embodies. His life journey has granted him the remarkable ability to speak from diverse perspectives, thanks to the blend of roles he juggles. Whether it's parenting, pursuing athletic excellence, or fostering meaningful connections in the tech industry, Terrance brings a unique and well-rounded perspective to the table.

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Anthony: 00:00

From a rider's perspective, you know, that they the fact that those you know, it's almost like the pit crew when people are racing the vehicles. You know what I mean? Like, they're they're the real heroes behind everything. You know, when you think about the fact that they have to, you know, they gotta wash and inspect. Oh, a thousand look.

Anthony: 00:17

A thousand miles. Bro.

Announcer: 00:23

Welcome to Spoke and Sole, a community built around two things that keep us moving, cycling and running. Whether you're chasing miles, hitting new routes, or just out there for the love of it, you have found your crew. We're here to share stories, tips, and anything that keeps us motivated. So lace up, clip in, and let's get moving with your hosts.

Terrance: 00:51

Welcome to Spoke and Sole, home of the essential athlete. I'm Terrance, here with Anthony as always. And today we wanna talk about one of the premier, if not the premier cycling event that happens, every year and it just finished up roughly about, I wanna say two to three weeks ago. And of course that is the Tour de France. Now after the Tour de France they do the Tour de Fame, that's the women's version.

Terrance: 01:14

That just finished, I wanna say on August 9. So I watched a lot more of the tour this year than I have in the past. And as years go on, I'm finding that I'm watching more and more. And when I first started to watch it, there was a lot of confusion there outside of the fact that it was riding some nice bikes. The elevation on some of those climbs was ridiculous.

Terrance: 01:42

But I didn't outside of basic knowledge, I didn't have a real understanding of what was going on in the tour until this year. I knew that it was coming up, and I wanted to have a better understanding. So what I wanna do with this episode is I wanna have a conversation and I wanna, for the casual viewer, right, give them a sense of what a lot of that stuff means and just cover the, not so much the technical aspect of it, but from a knowledge perspective, provide some knowledge on what it is, you know, and that sort of stuff. So I'm a start by asking you. I'm a test I'm a give you this little quiz here.

Terrance: 02:35

Yeah. How much of the tour do you, from a fan perspective, understand or know about?

Anthony: 02:46

Well, I'll just start out and and maybe they'll sponsor us at some point, but

Terrance: 02:51

You be looking for them sponsors. We ain't there yet.

Anthony: 02:53

That's right. I still want sponsors, you know, but from a riding perspective Speaking of

Terrance: 02:59

non sponsors, let's get that out of there.

Anthony: 03:01

Yeah, Gatorade, you take your sponsorship too. We run and ride. But, you know, from a rider perspective, my knowledge of the Tour de France, like I knew a little bit about it obviously, you know, from, you know, some of the American legends that used to ride. So, you know, you hear about that the one time a year. But for me, my knowledge has come from Zwift.

Anthony: 03:23

Yeah, yeah, yeah, Because we, you know, we train with Zwift. So that's kinda pulled me in, and again, haven't watched a lot of it, but I'll watch clips, you know, but to learn, like, little different things by based on what's going on in that virtual world. So that, that's how I know certain things, like, you know, when we talk about, you know, like the King of the Mountains and, you know, you see the different colored jerseys and those type of things which we'll talk about. That, that's how I learned about, the Tour de France basically from that, that virtual environment.

Terrance: 03:53

And you know what, that's a great marketing ploy by Zwift because Amazing. Because the lead up to the tour, all the different pieces of gear that you can get based off riding certain routes. The what is it? The XPs that you get Yeah. I'm trying to think of you know, there's one climb that I try to do at least once every three or four months.

Terrance: 04:20

It's it's Alpe Du Zwift, but the it's modeled after I think it's called Alpe Du Hues. It's one it's one the stages in the actual tour. But they do a phenomenal job from a marketing perspective to kind of get hype behind And

Anthony: 04:37

get and give that world that real world experience too.

Terrance: 04:39

Yeah. And I just real world is debatable, but No.

Anthony: 04:43

But in a sense, from a from a virtual perspective

Terrance: 04:45

Yeah. Yes.

Anthony: 04:46

You know, I mean, you know, again, it's no different than the video gamers that play, you know, FIFA or Yeah. You know, NBA or whatever else, you know, you you get a chance to kinda live that from a virtual perspective. And and myself, I just finished, I think it was the the Femi's one where it was the female one that they have that particular one Tour

Terrance: 05:05

de Fame. Tour Fame. The MES is Apparently the last MES is silent.

Anthony: 05:08

Yes. And I got the jersey. But my goal was, I was trying to write, you know, wanted to win the jersey, But they they had the routes that were emulating those different things that they would have had. So I I think that's incredible. Again, especially from a motivation perspective in that game, but also to say, okay, what's that connected to?

Anthony: 05:26

And they give a little background with that. So I think that's that's phenomenal.

Terrance: 05:29

And that's why I wanted to do a basic what the tour is from from a fan perspective. When I say well, I don't necessarily wanna say fan, but from a cyclist perspective who may not be a fan or may not watch the actual tour or get into the deep technical aspects or even know who Tade Pagatcha is or Del Toro or a lot of those other riders. Right? It's because the fanfare from just whether you do Zwift or one of the other platforms, there's such a build up. And if you enjoy cycling, it's a really cool event to actually watch.

Terrance: 06:16

I mentioned this earlier, The starts off with this huge parade, which prior to this year, had no knowledge of. It's a huge parade. From a fan perspective, here's what you gotta respect. 10 to 12,000,000 people out there on the actual road. Now, I'll say this.

Terrance: 06:41

My understanding is half of those people are out there for the parade. Mhmm. And the parade, there's a lot Listen, you're Mr. Swag. There's a lot of swag that's given out at that actual parade.

Terrance: 06:55

We're talking millions and millions of objects, pieces of swag, t shirts, key chains, hats, all that stuff given out. But I wanted to at least cover what the tour is, and not so much the tour from 2026, but what the tour is so the casual cyclist might say, hey, know what, that's interesting. Or I might, you know what I mean, just to build it up. And before I get too deep into that, you mentioned FIFA. What, it's not running, it's not cycling, but we just hosted the World Cup.

Anthony: 07:32

Yeah, I said it was huge.

Terrance: 07:34

We hosted the World Cup and first off, shout out to Spain. Shout out to Spain, winners of the World Cup. Portugal, we gotta get there. Portugal, we gotta get there. But the World Cup had a number of positive impacts from my perspective.

Terrance: 07:55

Right? The environment that we're currently in, when you look at us from the outside looking in, we're a hot mess. But to see all the people who came from other countries then reflect on their experience coming here to America and how a lot of the stuff that whether it whether it was from the media, whether it was from just stuff that they heard, to see a lot of that stuff debunked, to see their experience and them talking about how much of a great time it was to actually be a part of this. And to be able to go down. And I don't know if you had a chance to do this, but they had the watch parties downtown.

Anthony: 08:41

Yeah. Didn't go to watch parties when I heard about them.

Terrance: 08:43

We went down and we went, they had a couple of them were during the day and we went down to a couple of little watch parties. Eyla was able to go to Portugal, had a little store set up. She went down there and got some, got some jerseys. Were much more expensive than there than when I was in Portugal and got them. That was just such an experience that I just wanted to to mention that.

Terrance: 09:08

And also, 2030, the World Cup is gonna be in Portugal. And I'm gonna be there in 2030. But anyway, shifting gears, going back. From from an experience perspective, I have to imagine to be one of those 10 to 12,000,000 people out there, it shows how much they're into that actual sport. And the other part about that is, don't know if people understand this or people realize this, the Tour de France doesn't start in France.

Terrance: 09:45

And the reason why they do that is I mean it ends in Paris, it ends in France. But to build up international hype, it starts outside. This year it started in Spain. I'm not sure if it starts in Spain every year. But you know, just to just to get all those fans excited and to get that fan base to just buy in, you know, it really is an international event when it comes to that thing.

Anthony: 10:16

And I think and I think too, it it shows how sport connects people.

Terrance: 10:20

Yeah. 100.

Anthony: 10:21

You have all those different countries, you know, that are involved, cyclists from different countries and that they do the rides in different countries, that shows how the runningcom I'm sorry, the cycling community becomes collective. And and that's really good for the cycling community because as a whole, it's known to not really be that inclusive.

Terrance: 10:41

So Yeah. From a yes, from a cycling perspective. So let's talk about well, not even let's talk about one of the things that I think most people do understand about the tour is the yellow jersey. Right? And the yellow jersey goes to the person who at the end of each stage has the lowest time.

Terrance: 11:07

I'm pretty sure it is the lowest time throughout the actual stages. But there are also a number of other jerseys.

Anthony: 11:15

I know, I know. Listen, you know, I'm gonna say I love the push the button jersey.

Terrance: 11:20

The push the button jersey. So I'm assuming you're talking about green jersey. The green jersey. The thing about So it was interesting this year because like I said, there were 21 stages. There are about 23 teams and there's about eight people on each team.

Terrance: 11:40

And that's the other thing. Going back a few years, I knew that there were teams, but I didn't really know how the teams operate. But what I will say is this, what I kept watching for was who had the green jersey this year. I knew who had the yellow jersey. Right?

Terrance: 11:57

Well, prior to this year, I didn't know about the polka dot jersey. And I didn't know about the white jersey.

Anthony: 12:04

Hills pay the bills. That must be it. That that's probably your favorite, jersey.

Terrance: 12:08

Hills pay the bills.

Anthony: 12:09

Hills pay the bills for the best climber.

Terrance: 12:10

Listen. Again, the elevation on on these the it's just It's wild to imagine that, okay, so there are 21 stages. You take the sprints out for a second. They're part of the race, but the amount of the gain, the elevation, and just the amount of time that they're in the saddle, you gotta take your hat off to that. I mean, hills pay the bills, but I couldn't do that.

Terrance: 12:47

Again, I'm not a world class cyclist, but

Anthony: 12:49

But the power, you know, just

Terrance: 12:51

the

Anthony: 12:52

the resilience, you know, the just the focus, you know, to be able to focus. I mean, hell, I'm never gonna ride Tour de France but you know, when we get on those hills and the inclines are you know, six, seven, 800 and you know, sometimes we're like, this is bullshit.

Terrance: 13:11

Let me tell you what was blowing me away. As I was watching, I I I don't remember what stage it was. The stage is not important. What's important was the speed at which they were climbing. When I say 22, 23, 25 miles per hour.

Terrance: 13:34

Wow. It's ridiculous. I'm talking about on a climb. Climb. Shit.

Terrance: 13:39

On portions of the actual climb. That's ridiculous.

Anthony: 13:44

Hell, I can't even I have a hard time sometimes getting it on a flat.

Terrance: 13:47

Yeah. And and and I digress a little bit because, again, I'm trying to I'm trying to provide a basic knowledge of, you know, the tour and how it works.

Anthony: 13:55

But that's a good but that's a good comparison.

Terrance: 13:57

Oh, Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Anthony: 13:58

When you talk about how, you know, again, on that level, you know, like that's a high level, you know, and I think that's probably what draws in some of the casual fans and fans that happen to be cyclists.

Terrance: 14:11

Yeah, yeah, that comparison. Because

Anthony: 14:12

they put in the work, you can kinda be like, okay, you know, I've been out there and I've been in the trenches and have done that and have rode, so I can respect that. You know, it's almost like a boxer who, you know, they know what it's like to knock someone out and if they've gotten knocked out, they know what it's like, so you can respect that when you've actually seen it and seen the greatness of it.

Terrance: 14:33

Yeah. Yeah. So going back to the jerseys for a second, just so obviously at the end of all the stages, the person with the lowest time accumulation across all those stages is the winner of the tour from the perspective of the yellow jersey and that's the all around. The green jersey is that push the button jersey. Push the button.

Terrance: 14:55

It's the person who has accumulated the most points during the sprint, I wanna say. I believe that's a point. Let me look at my notes.

Anthony: 15:07

The best sprinter with the most

Terrance: 15:09

Yeah, most cumulative points. And then the polka dot jersey. You know, at the time I say polka actually, you know what the funny thing is? Every time I see the polka dot jersey, I think of Kwame. Yeah.

Anthony: 15:20

With the Gumby. Yeah.

Terrance: 15:22

But the polka dot

Anthony: 15:23

jersey What was did you have those pants?

Terrance: 15:25

I didn't have the pants.

Anthony: 15:26

I I have

Terrance: 15:26

some other pants. I had I did see. And I didn't have I didn't have hammer pants either. I digress. I did have some some some checker joints.

Terrance: 15:34

I didn't have the polka dotted ones. I had the checker joints. But the polka dot jersey is for the person who has accumulated the most points from a client perspective. And, you know, they have these, I guess for I don't wanna call them finish lines, but they have these contraptions where, you know what I mean, you go through, you get points based on you're the first person to reach a certain particular portion of that

Anthony: 15:59

actual So like a checkpoints, which again, which I go back to Zwift, Zwift does an excellent job because they emulate those things. Yeah. You know, and kinda to give you that experience that you may or may not be able to have. And then the white jersey.

Terrance: 16:14

The white jersey is something that I wasn't aware of, but the white jersey goes to the best overall performance from in the younger group. And I and I don't know if that is Like,

Anthony: 16:24

twenty twenty five years old? 25 or younger?

Terrance: 16:27

25 or younger. Yeah.

Anthony: 16:28

And and that's a nice one too. Know, it's kinda like giving, you know, giving respect to the the it's like the rookie of the year.

Terrance: 16:33

Yeah. Out.

Anthony: 16:34

Or the rookie the rookies the rookie of the month or whatever it may be, you know? And that's that's incredible too because it it kinda encourages, again, from a perspective of the people that are looking at it. Yeah. If they know what that is, and not just the casual person who's into it, you know, when you see those jerseys, those, that's good marketing for the up and coming cyclists that So may be coming up in the again, from a marketing perspective, it's, you know, and a hype perspective. They Yeah, did good job pulling that all together and looking at the different aspects of cyclists.

Anthony: 17:07

I, and again, for me, I haven't always paid attention to that, but looking at it from that perspective, it gives a little bit for everything.

Terrance: 17:16

Yeah, and that recognition is, I think it's cool to get recognition particularly when you're younger, you know, you're a younger competitive and you're coming in and obviously when you're a competitor, you wanna win, but to get recognition because sometimes you go in and, you know, you're you're you're working with the the big boys.

Anthony: 17:36

Big boys and experienced people and they give you those veteran

Terrance: 17:39

Yeah.

Anthony: 17:39

You know, those veteran hacks that you don't necessarily have yet. That's definitely a good thing.

Terrance: 17:46

And it's cool to have something to represent to show that, hey, this is the new kid. I'm coming up. I got my white jersey, I'm coming up.

Anthony: 17:53

New kid on the block, watch out for me.

Terrance: 17:56

Yeah. And so the other thing that I gained knowledge on and I credit a portion of that to Skip, there's only one winner when you start talking about Tour de France. But not one person wins on their own. And the whole concept of the team, didn't really grasp. I understood that you have some people who are working, so the person that they're working for has a bit they're putting them in a better position to actually win.

Terrance: 18:34

And Skip, when we would ride with Skip, Skip would always used to say that he was the domestique and I didn't know what he was actually talking about until this year and a little last year, really looking at what the makeup of the teams were and finding out that you have the GC, which is general what is that? The general

Anthony: 18:59

General contender?

Terrance: 18:59

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Knew about sprinters and what I knew from Skip about the actual domestiques. But knowing what their actual roles are, you know, that GC is that person who probably has the best shot of actually, you know, winning the actual tour.

Terrance: 19:19

Skip, when I think of Skip, when you think of Skip, Skip always says, Get on my wheel. Just skip behind me, get on my wheel.

Anthony: 19:26

You had me just thinking about that and it's funny how, you know, when we talk about how sport blends over into life, that whole persona, not just when we ride, but even outside of that with him, with what he does, you know, whether it's get on my wheel or whether it's, you know, I remember one time when we were riding, the, the Coventry, that Coventry ride where we go off left and we and go up that it was you, was you, him, Mary Anne, me, and Court. And I think there was one, there was a couple of hills where we were struggling and, you know, he was like tapping us Pushed, yeah. To like kinda get us up and, you know, he lives in that persona and I think it's just amazing how, you know, the sport piece goes over into regular recreation Yeah. And outside of that with what who he is as a person too, where he's that person who's trying to uplift people.

Terrance: 20:26

And that it's funny that you mentioned that because that gave me a better understanding of the actual role. Skip gave me a better understanding of the role. To say it is one thing. Right? And when you see his actions his actions are his actions because he's Skip.

Anthony: 20:42

Yeah.

Terrance: 20:43

But then as doing the research and understanding what that role is, that role is skip. And it maxims them perfectly. Exactly. And so I just found that it was I found it ironic that as I started to look at that and to understand it, it was Skip. And when I say it was Skip, it's who Skip is, it's how he actually acts.

Terrance: 21:09

So if you go back years ago when we first started riding with him, he was doing that stuff then. Yeah. And he put his hand on you man and he starts putting, or he'd be leading him like, Get on my wheel. And he has that, Skip, he's a big dude. He has that big wide body and he's like, Listen, I'm gonna take all that win and you just.

Anthony: 21:28

I know what's the person who's like the, you know, like the teacher too. And I, again, I know a lot about that, the person who is giving out is not the person who's sacrificing themselves for the greater good of the team. Yes. Don't, again, I don't know if that clearly

Terrance: 21:42

Well, mean, the nice thing the thing the thing about it is this, right? So you have eight people on the team, you have the GC, you have sprinters, you have the domestiques. They're all working together for that one person. So they are sacrificing themselves to put that person in a better position to win. And you gotta think about it.

Terrance: 21:59

So a couple of a couple of things happened in this tour. I think there were two stages where a teammate of Tade Pagatcha, Del Toro, a young kid, where Pagatcha showed his appreciation for the sacrifices by giving him, gifting him, I believe it was two stage wins. Right?

Anthony: 22:18

Wow.

Terrance: 22:19

Yep. It was a situation where, again, the team works to put themselves in the position. You have two to three what typically ends up happening is towards as you come to the end of a stage, have two to three members of a team who are there working and they're working to make sure that you get in the best position and to show his appreciation, for lack of I mean, Del Toro was phenomenal during this tour. And that's not to say he didn't earn those two stage wins, But Pagatcha could have easily taken those stage wins. But again, it's a testament to how that team operates.

Terrance: 23:01

It's a testament to someone being appreciative of the fact that listen, these guys or these members of my team, they sacrificed themselves to actually put me in the best possible position so I can come out on top.

Anthony: 23:13

And we can all win together. Think that's one of the things, I, again, for me as a cyclist, because obviously we ride, you know, as a group collectively, it gives me a lot of appreciation, not that we ride the Tour de France, but on how we all support each other to make sure that we, not on the stages itself, but from a local regular perspective, that we make sure that we all start and that we end together.

Terrance: 23:38

Here's what I like about all of this. And here's what I feel. Knowledge is power. I know that's cliche, but the more information you have, right, the more informed you are. It fuels your perspective or it provides you information that you can have a different perspective.

Terrance: 23:58

We've cycled with people before who, if you had if from the outside looking in, is an individual sport. And to an extent, I mean

Anthony: 24:16

No, it is.

Terrance: 24:17

It It is. But there's a team aspect of what happens from even any cycling event. Because again, ultimately, you work as a team to try to put your team's best rider in position to actually win. When you look at it from that perspective, my perception has changed a little bit. Right?

Terrance: 24:42

For the better. Because again, we've had conversations where I say, well, I see certain things in running that I don't see in cycling. This has allowed me to have a better appreciation not just for the sport of cycling, but for the joy of cycling. Right?

Anthony: 25:05

Yes, yes, and I think as a segue to that too, when you think about some of the logistics of it, you you and I were talking before we came on camera about how, you know, similar to NASCAR and all those other things, you know, sports where there are a lot of behind the scenes people who are the unsung heroes. Yeah. You know, the people that, I mean, all, you know, again, like, all we see is the people show up and they get in the car and it's the driver, I'm driving.

Terrance: 25:32

Yeah, you would see Speak up, love.

Anthony: 25:34

Okay, alright. And all you do, all you see is the driver, you know, but those people that are behind the scenes that are washing the bikes, that are tuning the bikes up, you know, even down to the people who, you know, are the support teams out there, you know, where if someone gets a flat tire and they swap those tires out in like ten seconds, that's for now, I mean, that's a skill in of itself. Yeah. To be able to support that team and sometimes, you know, it's those unsung heroes that obviously are helping and assisting for that, those wins, that you never really hear about.

Terrance: 26:06

You have to think about what it takes. So if you watch a stage, you'll see the car with the mechanics, with the extra bikes on it. But you gotta think about what happens behind the scene, as you said. My understanding is that for each I'm trying to remember if it was each rider or each team. I mean, they're dealing with hundreds of bikes.

Terrance: 26:32

Right? And during the day, you see the race, you see the ride, and you mention it. You don't see what happens behind. You don't see what and in a relatively short period of time, you gotta imagine that, first off, the tour's a huge race. You have to be prepared from a mechanic, from a whoever else is on the team, you gotta be prepared for almost anything.

Terrance: 27:01

And that's a lot of stuff that people don't see or people don't understand. And obviously, we know what goes into, well, let me rephrase this. We know how important it is to have our bikes maintained. Right? And we're not out there doing what they're doing.

Terrance: 27:19

So you know

Anthony: 27:20

how long it takes to change a tire. Because you're the main tire guy, you're like our road mechanic, so you have a great understanding of that, you know, in terms of, I mean, I can recall a couple times when, I think it was, it may have been, his name was Nico, when Nico I think caught two flats.

Terrance: 27:40

Yeah yeah yeah.

Anthony: 27:41

And you swapped his, you know, and you swapped his, you know, his flats and changed his flats. So Max told me be able to do that like in like ten seconds.

Terrance: 27:48

Yeah, and on top of that, you know, you gotta be prepared for crashes. Crashes. You gotta be prepared Mechanical

Anthony: 27:55

fails, chains snappin'. You know, I mean, like you said, you just gotta be ready for anything. And and again, I think that, that part of it is very intriguing, you know. And even us having this conversation today as someone who rides and as a casual rider, I will say that it's definitely piqued my curiosity of, you know, what goes on, you know. And, you know, although I may not be interested in watching the stages, I would love to see, maybe from a, a Tour de France perspective, that they maybe interview some of the people behind the scenes.

Anthony: 28:29

Like I would love to know what the day in the life of a mechanic though looks like who does that. You know, or someone who drives in the vehicle. Again, you know, they're kinda like those people that that you never see their faces and hear their names, but they're kinda like the foundation of, you know, of those teams.

Terrance: 28:47

I'd have to imagine you'd get some crazy stories. Yes. You'd get some crazy stories. And again, here's the other thing. I think the challenge for for for me is as much as I watched the event this year Mhmm.

Terrance: 29:03

It's an event that's outside of The US. So from a coverage perspective, you know, there is some coverage, but there might be some coverage, or there might be some behind the scenes interviews. I'm googling

Anthony: 29:17

that. When we finish this episode today, I'm gonna Google that to see, because I would love to see that perspective.

Terrance: 29:24

Yeah.

Anthony: 29:24

You know, from, and like you said, like some crazy stories about, you know, things that have happened, you know. And again, from the perspective of, and you're not just talking about regular, you know, my bike, well, you have the very expensive, expensive bikes. Now listen,

Terrance: 29:43

I'm a tell you this. When, so my bikes are cheap compared to what they

Anthony: 29:48

used No. To use I'm just busting the butt. But when you think about the level of those bikes too, that, you know, the things in the you know, the different components and things that they have and just the the craftsmanship that it would take to make sure that they're operable and be able to repair those, you know. This is why I don't get why more people well, I can't say more people, because there's a ton of people who watch the tour. From a There are two things that I really enjoy about

Terrance: 30:16

the I mean, I really enjoy watching the race. Because there's a mastery that's the word? Yeah. There's a mastery there that when you see them ride, you'll understand it when you see it. Right?

Terrance: 30:33

You'll understand that. And then at the same time, you also will get the appreciation for there's levels to And what I mean by that is, okay you start watching a race and then you see a breakaway. Right? And you see a group that actually breaks away. And when that breakaway happens, it's a breakaway.

Terrance: 30:53

You know, cream rises to the top. And you'll look and see What's amazing is you can look to see they're moving. They're going Listen, what are you doing right now? 40 So miles an let

Anthony: 31:08

me ask you a question.

Terrance: 31:10

Yeah.

Anthony: 31:10

So since we are Spoke and Sole, so is there a comparison or an equivalent from that breakaway from a riding perspective that you've seen in running?

Terrance: 31:23

Yes.

Anthony: 31:24

Okay.

Terrance: 31:25

Yes.

Anthony: 31:25

Because you haven't been thinking about that. Christian.

Terrance: 31:30

So if you go back two years ago, we marshaled, I wanna say it was Jamestown. It was Jamestown. As a matter of fact, it was Jamestown. And I told you about this guy who he was in the lead. It started out just, you know how that race starts.

Terrance: 31:51

The race starts, you have some elites who are gonna pull off in the beginning and you have a pack of them and it's just, okay, well that pack, as time goes on, it thins out. But you normally have like three to four people who are, you know, right there together. Right? Christian had went out. I told you the story.

Terrance: 32:15

He had went out with his friends the night before. Yeah. He, it was his first time running to Jamestown and he had a long night. You would never notice because there was no one else in sight. When I think about the Last year we did the Providence.

Terrance: 32:38

Right? And I likened this to the Providence, this happened before, so this is the first time I've actually seen it. And I say the Jamestown because Jamestown notoriously has some hills where Providence is relatively flat. But if you remember last year, we did the Providence, you stayed with the guy, the lead runner in the marathon. Okay.

Terrance: 32:58

He opened up first, there was two. It wasn't two for long, but there was two. He opened up such a sizable gap between him and the second place person who I stayed with. Right. But that second place person had opened up such a gap between him and everyone else that it allowed me the opportunity to go back to find the group of people who was behind him and then go back and find the first female who was behind So all of typically the breakaways on the tour, it's not really a solo person.

Terrance: 33:44

It'll be a group. Because the stages aren't like this unless you're talking about time trials of some of It's the a race and it's long. But when that breakaway happens, what you gotta understand is you break away from that Peloton, once that gap is there, now it's one of those things where it's not as easy to make that up. Right? And that group who breaks off, they're putting in work and they're staying together because even if they're not on the same team, they gotta work off each other.

Terrance: 34:18

Right? Because they don't want the Peloton to catch back up because now once the Peloton catches back up, that's much more competition that you actually have. So I likened some of those breakaways to a couple of those races where you have a pack of individuals, and again, we're talking marathon at this point, right? We're not talking about a five ks. Yep.

Terrance: 34:40

Because there's much more strategy there, right? And that's another part of it. You gotta have that actual because it's it's a long race. So I likened it to that situation where when that happens, from a strategy perspective, in that case with Christian, his strategy was keep running. And listen, was the thing.

Terrance: 35:03

He talked for a good portion of the actual race and there was no one in sight. But when you start talking about any cycling race, party history, you have to have a strategy when something like that happens because there's a danger to if you don't know, we're gonna get into this, but we've talked about this briefly. Sometimes the crowd or the masses can pull you out of who you are Who

Anthony: 35:35

you are.

Terrance: 35:36

In a race. Right?

Anthony: 35:37

Very true.

Terrance: 35:37

And you have to be mindful of who you are, but you also have to have a strategy to keep yourself from overexerting yourself too soon

Anthony: 35:46

Too soon.

Terrance: 35:47

And ending up Boinking. Boinking. Right? So, but just to see, just to see the mastery, to see the level. I mean it's a.

Anthony: 36:01

Because it's a bunch of things too, you know, when I look at that, you know, it's not just, you know, it's, you know, what you have from, the perspective of your bike, you know, what you have from a perspective of your riding, you know, far as your athleticism, you know, also, like you said, strategy, because you can be the most athletic person in the world, but if you don't have strategy, you know, and planning, you know, combination of those things is what I would say would take to that. And like you said, looking at that from a different level, you know, and not just, you know, you're out there and you're riding 30 miles and, you know, you're gonna ride 22 miles an hour, but like you're out there and, you know, you're doing that on multiple stages, on multiple days. And Like, is, and, you know, for me as an endurance athlete, that is,

Terrance: 36:49

you

Anthony: 36:49

know, that's, that's a mind boggling thing.

Terrance: 36:52

And keep this in mind, 21 stages, I believe there's two rest days. Wow. Two rest days. So as a whole, here's what's appealing to me as a cycling fan when we start talking about the tour. Something that I never knew about originally.

Terrance: 37:11

That whole parade thing.

Anthony: 37:12

I I I would go on the parade. The parade thing,

Terrance: 37:16

the energy. Mhmm. Again, you can feel I've been watching, you know, so we're coming off, it might still be going on, but track events, championships has been happening. I've been watching some of those. And Track is different from road racing from the perspective of on the track.

Terrance: 37:44

It's just It's just the athletes. Just the athletes. They're on the track. Right? And you don't get a sense of the energy because you have this huge track and then you have these stands.

Terrance: 37:58

Road races, depending on the road race, you get some of that, right? Because you have some people who are out there, they're cheering the people around on the side, you know what I mean? We talked about Boston, we talked about some of the iconic places where, whether it's the students or wherever you get the people out there. When you look, even through the TV, when you look at the Tour de France and you see one of the cool things I saw, I wish I could remember his first name, the American cyclist, Simmons is his last name, he's riding and his father is in the actual crowd and his father high fives him as I he's gone think that was incredibly cool. But you see the energy.

Terrance: 38:41

Right? And it's infectious. And on top of all that, if you're watching, you have to be thinking, look at all these people out there. They're out there for a reason. Passion, you know, whether it's the fandom, the enjoyment, they're out there for a reason.

Terrance: 39:01

So between the parade, between the actual people, the strategy. Right? When you watch these teams race and you see the breakaway, if you, if to the casual viewer you might be seeing up, somebody's picking it up, they push the button. But pushing that button is part of their strategy because you'll notice that for a while And I noticed this, I noticed this watching this year. As I watch Tade Pagatcha during some of these stages, he was just chilling.

Terrance: 39:42

I mean, he was, I mean, sometimes he'd come across fortieth. You know what I mean? Sometimes he wouldn't be in the top 20. But he still had that yellow jersey. Because his strategy was, okay, well these stages are where I'm strongest.

Terrance: 39:59

We're gonna work to get in position where either I win this stage, and I believe he won five stages this past tour. I win this stage, or from a points perspective, or from a time perspective, the strategy. And I'll go back and mention, you know, the I'm trying to remember. It wasn't Lance Armstrong. I'm I'm trying to remember the last American.

Terrance: 40:28

I mean, it's it's it's tainted, but again, from the perspective of being able to watch this race, and I don't even know why I mentioned them, but it was just going back to Simmons and cool seeing American there and, you know, amongst But all

Anthony: 40:40

Even with despite all the controversy, I mean, you know, he

Terrance: 40:44

did what he did. Here's what I'll say.

Anthony: 40:45

You know? He did what he did.

Terrance: 40:47

Seven tours. Yeah. Lot of them were know, without to get too much, a lot of those people were dirty, but anyway, the strategy behind it. I'm one of those people where, sometimes I watch, I've actually watched a couple crit races on TV. And just, I enjoy watching cycling events.

Terrance: 41:16

I enjoy riding, but I enjoy watching cycling events where there's strategy involved.

Anthony: 41:20

So with that, then you should have a new appreciation for me then. Because I rise strategically.

Terrance: 41:25

No. Listen, me tell you something. Let me tell you something. I love how you threw that in there. Listen.

Terrance: 41:35

Your strategy is different from this perspective. You always end up with too much left in the tank.

Anthony: 41:41

Alright, but it's still strategy though. At least it's a bit a strategy man.

Terrance: 41:47

I love how you threw that in there. So overall, I'll say this, for the casual fan or the casual cyclist, when next year comes around, if you're not training on Zwift or whatever, typically around that July timeframe, it's typically around the fourth, I think this year it started on the second, around that July timeframe, that's when the tour kicks off. Whether it be for the parade, whether if you're just watching to see the fanfare. I mean, again, to see all those people out there. Whether it's to see someone finishing the stage on one of those climbs, or whether it's to just see the bikes.

Terrance: 42:33

The Tour de France is something that I think that the casual fans can get something out of. You don't have to watch all 21 stages, but I think it's something that the casual fan should at least watch once to see what it's all about, particularly if you're into cycling because again, the bikes are phenomenal, the athletes are phenomenal, the fanfare is incredible. FIFA World Cup happened, you know, The World Cup was still going on when the tour started, but you get a sense of the fandom that surrounds the World Cup. And you see how much hype that actually goes into it and how from a world stage, you know, all these people come together. The Tour de France, to me, is that World Cup.

Anthony: 43:33

I agree.

Terrance: 43:34

It's the World Cup of And

Anthony: 43:35

I just think it's just, you know, since cycling isn't as popular here as it is in other countries, that's why it probably doesn't get as much, you know, promotion, as it would some of the other sports.

Terrance: 43:48

So, that being said, I'm gonna end it like this. You got one of the largest parades, 10 miles, 170 sponsors, and a ton of swag.

Anthony: 44:03

Free swag, too.

Terrance: 44:04

You got some of the some of the most passionate, devoted fans out there on the actual roll. You're talking millions of people. And then from a logistics perspective. And when I say logistics, I'm talking overall. I'm talking about those people behind the scenes who have to maintain.

Terrance: 44:25

I'm talking about putting on this event that starts in one country and finishes in another. I'm talking about the number of teams that are actually involved and the number of people. Is a miracle. I'm gonna use that term. It's miraculous that this event is able to be put on every year.

Terrance: 44:52

And I think that if you have not watched any of it, I think there's something for you to get out of it. And on top of that, I mean, shout out to Gabby, I'm trying to remember Gabby's last name, her dad used to ride with us. He rode with us when we would ride with that other group. And he's actually gone. There is, I don't know what they actually call it, but you get the opportunity to go out to France and you can actually ride the actual route.

Terrance: 45:27

He's been out there twice and I don't know if, I think the first time one of his one of the people he went with couldn't finish and I think he might have been sick the second time and I haven't talked to her this year. But to be able to experience that, I think that's one of the things on my bucket list. And I've talked about this before and after this I'll end it. But I talked about traveling abroad, and just doing different there. It's different riding on the road in some of these places and some of these routes.

Terrance: 46:02

Being able to ride some of these Iconic. Iconic routes, I think that's on the bucket list. That's one of the things where I'm excited about having the ability to do one of those Portugal tours, bike tours with whatever agency that it actually is. So there you have it. From the perspective of the Casual fan, we just wanted to get some information on the basics of the Tour de France.

Terrance: 46:38

And so until next time, keep those wheels spinning, keep those feet moving, and we'll see you on the road.