Tils: All right, team, we're back, but not with Chloe Hosking. We were hoping to have her on, but she's actually just had some connectivity issues. Hollywood, the internet in the capital of the country up there in Canberra, they're still using dial-up. we're actually gonna use it, catch up with her in a special podcast later this week. So stay tuned, we'll end up splitting up these podcasts so you get two for one offer. Well, back You can now watch us on YouTube, like, share, subscribe. If you are watching us on YouTube, you would know now that I've got my bitch bun back. ⁓ That is, ⁓ I can finally my hair back up into a ponytail in the hope of copping less abuse on the roads. A big thank you to Black Sheep Cycling for powering today's mega podcast. ⁓ this week with the domestiques and H I actually don't think many people would realise that you were actually the president of St Kilda in its heyday. We're really taking the horns today on being Australia's best cycling podcast for local and global racing. And we have an exclusive episode for you today featuring the Commonwealth Gold, Commonwealth Games gold medalist. She's an Olympian, but more impressively a lawyer, Hosking Bike founder. It is of course, Chloe Hosking, who will be joining us later in today's pod because there is a lot to chat about what is going on. Hollywood: Yes, three years, President. We were the biggest cycling club in Australia. We had over a thousand members and we were flying, but unfortunately when we lost the racing, we just slowly declined. But they've got a new president now, Juliette, who's a lovely, lovely lady and she's trying to build it back up. So I've met with her. She's got some great ideas. They're doing a new kit. So now I'm really looking forward to seeing St Kilda grow again. Tils: at Cycling Australia, I got an email late on Friday night from the chair of CA fighting for his job. We thought let's go straight to the source and find out what the devil is going on. But firstly, what a weekend. Marano, San Remo, both men's and women's, the greatest cyclismo cinema, last 30K of any bike race. Plus we had the Pro Velo wrapped up in Queensland and the 2026 champions. So stay tuned team, we will pop back in your ears later this week and we will look forward to chatting to you then. Have a great week, ride safe, bye for now. have been crowned. Let's bring in the crew. Now Marco, you're on a tight schedule today and you're just going to join us for the initial chat. First part of this podcast. Firstly, how are you and how did you consume the 300 kilometers of Milano San Remo? Hollywood: Hmm. Mark O'Brien: I am swell, thanks Tills. No issues from my end. It was such a good weekend. It's a lovely day today. I am on the childcare run today. So I'll be booting home shortly from this to get Sebastian. But yeah, it a good weekend of bikes. was out and about and did a supporting local racing with Glenvale yesterday. And I did not watch a single minute of San Remo on the evening of. I locked in Tils: Yeah Mark O'Brien: Given I've been getting some early 5.30 wake ups from Sebastian, he then played bin night with all these bin and garbage trucks with me while I watched the last 50k like it was live before I opened up a single message on my phone or anything. I hid my phone away until I got to take it all in as if it was live while drinking a cup of tea instead of a beer. Tils: ⁓ media blackout. ⁓ Lee Katerna, Hollywood, are you still whinging or are you giving up on cycling? Hollywood: I'm still whinging, had no sleep Friday night and then had did hell ride on an empty stomach because we had people over and someone was asleep on the couch, shout out the chairs so I didn't want to wake her up so I couldn't go to the kitchen. Tils: I Hollywood: and then got dropped over Oliver's and just rode home. So that was fine. No dramas. And then we watched Milan Sun Remo together with Ali. And then when you went home, I stopped. And then I watched the highlight package on SBS for the women's and then the men's at 30 minute one, was great. So that was good. And I just have to mention people who got upset with my Instagram post story yesterday. That was a joke. That was a good friend and it was a staged thing. wasn't. me abusing someone really it was staged he was laughing his head off so please don't think that I've had a few hate messages and it was a joke it's my mate Kano Tils: Yeah. Mark O'Brien: What? For those that don't see all of your stories, what happened? I didn't even see this one, I wasn't on my phone. Hollywood: I put on the chat, now what happened was Kane, I went for a ride in the afternoon with a young kid, Charlie Stewart, and Kane rang me and he wanted to come out and meet me. I said, yep, no worries. And he turned up at Black Rock on a gravel bike in runners. And then, We, you know, joked with him and then he rode off and I rode up to him behind going, get off the fucking road. You're, you know, what, go away. You know, just went off me head at him. And then obviously record on my Oakley metaglasses and posted on Insta cause it was funny. But then people thought actually I was, yeah, people actually thought I was really picking on a guy riding on the road with his runners on. And I got some hate messages saying you're a bully. I thought you're a nice guy, blah, blah, this stuff. And I should have kept the camera rolling. Tils: I didn't say this. Mark O'Brien: You Tils: you Mark O'Brien: I'm watching it. Hollywood: you would have seen Kane laughing his head off because it was staged but I did you know it just stopped when it did and people thought I was attacking and abusing this poor person so it was my mate Kane Fraser love Kano so sorry he was in on the joke and it was funny but some people didn't think it was funny so Tils: I Mark O'Brien: Thank Yeah. Tils: ⁓ god. Mark O'Brien: Also, there's all the size of Cain, Cain could belt you no worries at all. Hollywood: ⁓ mate, he's played AFL. He played AFL for Hawthorne, he'd eat me in a heartbeat. But we're good mates and it was a joke. What a disgrace though, turning up to meet me on a gravel bike with runners on. Like seriously, what did he expect? Exactly, exactly. Tils: You That might be how well you're going at the moment. He just thought he was at that level. Mark O'Brien: Yeah, I would have sprayed him. I would have sprayed him as well. That's fair. Yeah. Hollywood: I tell you what, was hard to actually him mind you, like he's going alright. Mark O'Brien: Yeah, I did notice that the bunch got awfully quiet around Oliver's Hill and I didn't hear any more yapping all the way back in. So I didn't know what had happened to you, ⁓ Hollywood: Yeah, yeah that was me. Nah, I just was so lazy and just, and I, because I just didn't have my yellow kit on, I just don't feel like Superman. So I went to Ormond and said I need to get me yellow bike or get my white one painted because I just miss feeling like Superman. But anyway, third world problems. Tils: Hahaha ⁓ ⁓ my god. Ha ha ha! Mark O'Brien: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Mm. Yeah. Yeah. Tils: Honestly, you are so unique. God damn it. Alright, back on track. Holy dooly. Marco, let's start with the mens. ⁓ Mark O'Brien: ⁓ tills. I'm so, so, so excited about this. Tils: ⁓ gosh. Hollywood: Mmm, me too. Tils: One thing I will say that maybe they could drop 100k out of the start of it. ⁓ I stayed, yeah, went over, tried to watch it on a Hollywood cinema for about an hour and a half and I think absolutely nothing had happened except Sylvia sitting on the front for literally 200 kilometres. The most exciting thing that happened in the first five hours was the initial break went the wrong way. So it is not just women's bike racing, it is also men's. And... Hollywood: Yeah I agree, yeah I agree. Mark O'Brien: Nah. Hollywood: Yeah, yeah. Mark O'Brien: Also, like if you're locking in for that, like you bring it on yourself, like realistically, everyone knows San Remo, so you gotta let that accumulation of fatigue resistance build, build, build, but you shouldn't be locking on your TV until you're at least the trick happy. Like it's, that's on you. Hollywood: Exactly. Tils: I know you just you just get so excited though Marco that it starts at like 7 45 and it's live live prime time Saturday night in Australia and then it's like ⁓ Hollywood: Yeah. Mark O'Brien: Yeah. Tils: I don't think any other sport in the world could pull off the shit that cycling does where it's like, all right, nothing's going to happen for six hours, but stay tuned to live TV. But Marco, break it down for us. It really just starts to ⁓ build once it hits the coast. And we had a couple of crashes, but really, as you said, you watched the last 50k and it was sort of that last 30k where everything changes in the men's race now. Mark O'Brien: Nah. Hollywood: Bye. Mark O'Brien: Yeah. Well, so I was explaining this to my four year old. So I was very excited and he was wondering why I was just so excited. So ⁓ with this, had going on the treg happy as UAE were winding it up and up and up, which was really, really good. Just making a bit of fatigue in everyone's legs, which I think is what was needed for Podgica to have any sort of chance to actually win the race. But then of course, as everyone in the cycling world would know, Tils: Yeah. Mark O'Brien: At about 40k to go, there was a big stack and at this point Pog had lost Jan Christen which was going to be huge when you think about the lead out that he needed for the Chepressa. ⁓ Everyone knew that it was well and truly ⁓ out there that he was going to light it up on the Chepressa. So we were just waiting, waiting, waiting until they got there but then he crashed what 8k before. Vanderpool also went down. ⁓ Van Aert took a bit longer to get going and all of sudden it went from Hollywood: Mmm. Mark O'Brien: Oh wow, we've gone from he had it like gonna light it up to will even get back on and then so as we got closer to press it was clear that Vanderpool was gonna get on Pog was getting back on and then they hit into the base and you are right like Elise is now in the back as long as you can get around a bit of the fluff getting dropped they can still have a chance to light on the podgeo and then it gets a bit further and climbing suddenly Pog's making inroads getting closer to the front closer to the front closer to the front you're like oh actually you'll be You might have a little that's happened, not much is going to happen. then lo and behold, Brendan McNulty takes him to the front. Isaac del Toro, fresh off Torino Adriatico victories there, lights it up for a matter of seconds. Pogachar with wounds out, fresh off the chase, just launches it. And then you have only Vanderpool and Pidcock able to follow. And then he's going to hit them another couple of times up there, split it open. think, oh, we'll get to the top. And whether they actually ride with him or not, it's another thing. yet. Hollywood: Mmm. Mark O'Brien: They then just both just locked in, alright, like Pidcock being a bit lighter, gone a soft shoe a couple of these turns, which is well and truly fair. But they all cooperated all the way through to the Poggio, but then they started losing a bit of ground in the Pello that ⁓ Lidl Trek had actually done it well and just waited a bit with Mads Pedersen. They had Matthias Vakcek, who was excellent the Giro last year, then bringing that gap down further, further, further. And I could see that Vanderpool and Pidcock was sort of easing off their turns a little bit. So the bunch was coming back at them and you go, ⁓ they're going to get caught on the Poggio because the bunch with momentum into the base is going to come flying at them. then suddenly Podjica and Vanderpool are going to ruin their chances. And no, not to me, Podjica has been able to launch it straight away at the bottom. I saw he did the first five, 600 meters at 40k an hour ⁓ and then ⁓ has managed to dislodge Vanderpool. And once again, the bunch was only just behind them. So you sort of wait and go on, Oh, can he drop Pidcock? Can he not? Will the bunch catch him? Will he not? I was just on the edge of my seat getting so up and about. And then he kept on launching, launching, launching, thinking, Oh, surely Pidcock will get dislodged here. Couldn't shake him. You're right. Now it's a different race. Will they both commit to the line or will they not? Pidcock's got phenomenal descending skills as well. So even will he try something on the podgeo descent. And the bunch was just there breathing down their neck. So. I think coming off the bottom of the descent, we're at about 15, 16 seconds when you see back to the bunch with Van Aert taking the fly with his momentum. And out front, you could see Pidcock and Podjicka sort of semi looking at each other and you're going, all right, he's going to come flying at them. And as you're getting the long shot, you could see them in the background coming. So it's getting closer and closer. Pog had to do the last K, 1.2 K on the front. Sorry guys, I got cut off there. He's done so much work and getting so close And he's waiting waiting waiting to open up the sprint about 200 ago with a bunch breathing a neck and Pete Cox just had I he tried to just Sort of get Pog to go early to sort of look like he was gonna jump up the inside of him then had to back out and then start coming back up closer closer closer and Yeah, the throat of the line looks so close and yeah Pog, it's probably one of the most exciting finishes I've watched since Hollywood: Mmm. Mark O'Brien: Vandapool at Amstel Gold Race back in about 2019 I think it was. Yeah, so, so exciting. You're just waiting to see how it was going to pan out and yeah. To come to the finish like that was just amazing. Be that close and then for Pogachar now to get his four out of five monuments with just now the Parirubay to come. It's yeah, it was such a great finish. Tils: Mmm. Hollywood: Yeah, yeah that was good. Tils: Yeah. Mark O'Brien: How did you guys say it? Hollywood: ⁓ Similar like I was when I was watching those 30 minute highlight package because obviously really it's what you just mentioned at the end I was just hoping he would win so much because I want him to get all of the five monuments So now as you said, he's only got one more to tick off because in my opinion He is the greatest cyclist of all time without question ⁓ So yeah, I really want him to win it So I was I thought that Pigcock was going to get it with that throw but then when you see the overhead shot, it's like wasn't even, ⁓ it was close, four centimetres but it wasn't as close as it looked live so honestly I was thrilled he won it was just like he is like he crashed that's like crashing on Carr Street on North Road long and then coming back attacking over Canadian riding up on two bays and sprinting to the wind like you just won't come you couldn't come back if you crash at Carr Street on North Road long you're not coming back Mark O'Brien: Thank you. care. Yeah. Tils: ⁓ I think it was, ⁓ I had a feeling this year that I was like, there's no way Poggy can have the success that he had last year in the Classic. He was touched by God last year. Like he just was clean all the way through. And when I saw him crash, and he didn't just crash guys, he was the first to go down. It was so heavily aggressive. He was torn to shreds. I'm thinking, yep, that's what I thought. That man, he's gonna have bad luck. He can't win. Hollywood: Yeah, yeah, how do you do that? Yes, yes. Tils: And then he goes and wins it anyway. And I think what is just so unbelievable about him is that he can't be disliked. That type of dominance is usually hated. The Goliath, somehow he's able to change this narrative around, ⁓ know, those, you know, people are backing him. He's the fairy tale story. Couple of things I took away from a few points. One, hilarious when UAE weren't there and J.Co then went to the front and they were like, Hollywood: Nah. ⁓ yeah, what were they doing? Tils: I don't know what to, well, they had to do something and no one knew what to do. And so there was this weird moment where everything was so anticipated around UAE ripping it to shreds and then UAE weren't there. ⁓ I think Pog's descending was insane. Like never have we had a GC writer as good as he is that can descend. Like he is the best all around. Like it's incredible to see like. Hollywood: I hear. Yeah. Tils: Pitcock is known as the best ascender in the world and Pogge was riding him off his wheels. So must've done a huge amount of practice on those roads. ⁓ Walt Van Aert, he was actually, apart from what happened with Pogge, what he did and achieved, having also crashed, waited even longer for a bike change, how the fruit he came back, attacked the bunch and then went on to get third was just stunning. had... Hollywood: ⁓ Yeah. I was wrapped till you got third. Tils: knee surgery or whatever it was. But Marco, I do think Pitter's buggered it. Like, what was his name? Stenning at the Melbourne to Warner. did every kilometer perfectly until the very last meter. He should have won. Pidcock is a better sprinter. He balk... You go Marco. Hollywood: Hell. Mark O'Brien: Hmm. Yeah. Yeah. Well, we all wheel on the wrong side of Poggy. Yeah, we're on the wrong side of Poggy. So he had to he actually backed out back and then had to come up the left. And then also he didn't give himself any space to run at him either. Yeah. So then you end up just having the overlap of the wheel and you're trying to sprint and then he started coming quickly. But yeah, he should have given himself space and not got stuck on the wrong side. But it's very easy to say. Hollywood: What line? You reckon? Nah. Yeah. Mark O'Brien: from my couch ⁓ and also a man that's basically never won a sprint before. But ⁓ I think the other interesting part or Mads Pedersen first race back finishing fourth is just mind blowing ⁓ off his injury. also I think one of the other things like Vanderpool obviously heard a little bit from the crash, but the other thing that I don't think people are talking about is the fact that he had to time trail like with his team anyway, but you also redlining all that lead into Chepressa. So you got to think about Polgot prosuits better. Hollywood: Yeah. Yeah. Mark O'Brien: that long sustained effort where Vandepal is a bit more punchy. Having to ride that hard before you even hit the climb would probably hurt him a bit more than what it normally would have. So I don't necessarily think we saw the best of Vandepal after that crash, but I hope it doesn't impact him for Flanders and Roubaix. But I really think no one's going to touch Pogge in this form for Flanders. ⁓ And then, yeah, he could well be the first person to ever win all five monuments in one season. It's not out of the question right now. Tils: Mmm. No way. I wondered Marco if actually when I saw van der Pol struggling, that if he actually heard it reheard his back, cause he's got a really sensitive back after that horrific crash that he had at the world's mountain bike championships. Oh he has that it's his back. Oh, it was his hand. Yeah. Oh yeah. Mark O'Brien: which is, he's already up. Yeah. Hollywood: I just wanted to win Roubaix. Yeah he has he's come out say on cycling news and said he couldn't hold his handlebars on not drop it to his back hand he couldn't hold his hand couldn't hold his bars properly so you can't be anything but a hundred percent to have any chance against a POG you have to be perfect. Mark O'Brien: That was his hand. That was his hand. Yeah. Yeah. ⁓ Tils: I I just think maybe that adrenaline for Pog, that would have got him going so much up the suppressor. But after that, I don't know. Hollywood: He's just... Mark O'Brien: Well, it kind of worked out okay with these teammates, like ⁓ Del Toro just waiting a bit longer and then launching a bit fresher perhaps. And as you said, it was almost like the Ricky Bobby thing with every other team looking, going when there's no UAE, they're like, I don't know what to do with my hands. Yeah. Like, like, yeah. Like everyone's sort of like, ⁓ what were we meant to do now? So, ⁓ yeah, it was pretty interesting, but I did see this morning that see Pog's now up to the second in the all time list of monument winners. He's up to 11. Tils: Mmm. Hollywood: ⁓ exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Tils: Yeah. I Mark O'Brien: each equal with Roger de Villamenec and just Eddie now is eight monuments away which is certainly not out of the question but one of the interesting things you think about how dominant Boonan and Canchelara were through a whole era you actually realize Vanderpool's already won more monuments in both of them so ⁓ yeah like it's interesting just how dominant Vanderpool and Pog have been for this ⁓ I guess this generation it's amazing how frequently they're winning races at this level Hollywood: Yep. Tils: Mmm. Hollywood: Yay. Tils: ⁓ Marco, how do you think this race plays out in the future? Pogge's come out to say that he is unlikely to re-attend Milano-San Remo. Does it return to potentially being a sprinters classic ⁓ or is this stage now set on how this race is won? Mark O'Brien: Nah, it's going back to how it was. I don't think anyone else has the pure force to go to the front and just light it up on the tripressor that way. I think people will try and make it hard, but I don't think anyone... It's kind of like depending on who's on the hell ride about how many people get up to Canadian Bay. Sorry about that. You need the right people on the front to light up and actually be able to ride that sort of pace to split it. And you think, oh, it's just a hard climb, but it's not. It's only a hard climb if you're 38k an hour. Hollywood: Yeah. Yes. Yep. It's true. Mark O'Brien: So I think it's, reckon you'll see it return to, it will still split a bit there, but no one's got then the strength to keep a group rolling. don't think from there to the podgeo. And I think Pidcock and Vanderpool would back themselves from a podgeo showdown anyway. yeah, I think it's not a bad thing. I love that like one and done, just get it done and not have to return. Tils: Mm. Hollywood: Very true. Tils: Mmm. Hollywood: Exactly like he's just done everything he just will he do the double though around the bay in three peaks could he do that Matilda Tils: You Hahahaha Mark O'Brien: Hehehehehe Tils: Alright, ⁓ equally so and honestly guys I'm spewing that so many of these monuments and classics the men's and women's are on the same day I just think it is so hard to give both of them equal Attention from the media the commentators SBS they couldn't they showed the women's race, but they didn't have ⁓ Direct coverage. They just use the global feed which was fine. They had Hannah and Jose Bain which was Hollywood: Yay. Tils: who were great, but yeah, I think it just, this was equally an unbelievable race. Also for some of the reasons that we saw in the men, because unfortunately of the crashes, I'll cut to the chase really quick on the, the Latape of how it played out, but essentially Cassia Neodoma, Kim La Courte, they were absolutely cooking. They were trying to do the Pagacha UAE, make it as hard as possible. last year that Lorena Webus won this so it was more a traditional Milanese Enri Mo in their first edition where it was a sprinters race. ⁓ Allie Walliston looked amazing up the trepressa she was one of the only sprinters to sort of stay within that front group. We then saw a small group get away and on the descent and everyone was absolutely going for it. Puck Petersay was there who's a fantastic descender obviously mountain biker. ⁓ Hollywood: Yeah, sure's up there. Yep. Tils: but we then saw a huge crash on the descent. I actually think that Kim La Courte, she could have come back from this crash and contested the finish, but she waited with Cassia to check she was okay. And this crash is on a blind corner. So riders come flying around the corner panicked full gas and that's where we saw a number of other riders crashing into riders who had already crashed and the horrific footage of Deborah Silvestri going over the barriers and I thought she'd be in a boggy bag. It was horrific. Hollywood: ⁓ fuck. Superman. Yeah, it was pretty bad. when she wasn't moving, like to crush is one thing, but it was a drop. It was actually a drop, like a fall. So yeah, it was pretty... ⁓ fuck. Mark O'Brien: Yeah. Yeah, and like vertical hitting down you'd think at least shatter like a collarbone or two and ⁓ actually came away I think some rib fractures, but nothing too severe Yeah, so like it's a bad time like sneezing will be a horrible time or any sort of coughing But ⁓ as far as a crash that looks like that. I think that's a pretty good outcome Hollywood: Five ribs, fuck, that's terrible. Tils: Yeah. Mmm. Yep. Hollywood: I've ridden down that descent and it is so quick and there are corners where you would just they would come around a lot faster than me and you've just got no time to stop. It's not like the Nicole Frame where she went through the whole bunch like Temp'n Bowling. This is a blind corner where you just don't see where you come around. Tils: Mmm. Mark O'Brien: Yeah. Tils: ⁓ So then they obviously showed a lot of that footage, but from that we then go up the Poggio and it was Park Piedusay who really lit it up. Hollywood: ⁓ yeah, that was good. Yeah, I like that. Tils: and only a handful could follow. We saw two from UAE, Dominika Vodacek, who was a name we mentioned a lot here at the Tour Down Under. And they had the other rider in Gasparini, Eleonora Gasparini. So she was really the only rider that didn't work in that group. And of course you had the rising, the Phoenix from the Ashes, Lota Capecchi, ⁓ and alongside Katerna. Hollywood: lot of Keturna. Tils: ⁓ We had Naomi Rueg as well. She ⁓ was obviously the winner of Two Down Under. So it's just showing team that form. ⁓ Summer, it just carries you well through to ⁓ the spring classics. Hollywood: You Yeah. Yep. Tils: So it was those five writers that came to the line just. ⁓ The Peloton, similar to the men, were absolutely trying to mow them down. They were only nine seconds back. You could see them in the rear view mirror. ⁓ Gasparini, just, UAE had two writers there and they just did not too much with it. ⁓ I think, yeah. Mark O'Brien: Nah, it was rubbish. You'd want to see some rolling attacks. You're not beating Kapecki in that. Naomi Rueg, also super fast as we saw what she did to UAE at TDU. You'd think you'd learn from that and not be like, ⁓ yeah, like fourth and fifth could be good here. At least try. That's the thing that annoys me. like, I know that you're not the fastest there and there's a good chance you get shut down straight away. But is that really changing your result? Like UAE aren't short for UCI points. They don't need a score. Tils: Mmm. Hollywood: Mmm... Yeah. Tils: Hahaha Mark O'Brien: two top fives, what they'd really love is to actually give themselves a chance, a hesitation and try to actually win the race. instead they sort of just went through to the finish. Tils: And yeah, and so essentially exactly, and not just that, but Gasparini was so far back for the sprint. She stayed in that fifth position for the entire, you know, last sort of 5k or so, and then never moved from it coming up to the last 500 meters. And so she was so far back when the sprint started, but what I loved about this race. And what I love about sport, this is one of the times when you're off, I was off the couch screaming at the TV for Kapecki to win. I really thought Naomi Ruge was coming around, but ⁓ look, Kapecki just looked glorious. And I think after her winning Flanders last year and then somehow being absolutely belittled by the Belgian press that she's useless. She doesn't train enough. She needs to be more like Pauline Fren-Provost. She needs to take training more seriously. Hollywood: Yeah. Tils: And yeah, she's got torn to shreds in the world champion kit last year. And now she has won a monument to start the year. And I hope this is the return ⁓ of Lotte Kapecki. Hollywood: Fark it out, two time world champion, Fark it out. Yeah. Mark O'Brien: I think you'll see it at Tour of Flanders as well. You only got to a couple of weeks. think now confidence is huge as well. That's the other thing. And of course, Lorena Wiebes cleaned them all up in the sprint behind, but Allie Wollaston had a great sprint there as well. I think having this success here, that should actually start letting her believe in herself. And she won during the week as well leading in. Yeah. Yeah. So then I think from... Hollywood: course. Tils: Mmm. Yeah, not a coarser. Yeah. Hollywood: She shouldn't have to believe in herself, she's a two-time world champion. have come third at one C-grade Glenbaugh and I'm believing in myself. She's a double world champion. Mark O'Brien: Mate, you are only two weeks ago, you were a seven and a half hour peeker and now look at you. Tils: You're riding with people on gravel bikes and flat shoes. ⁓ A big shout out to Allie Walliston. really hope, speaking of believing in yourself, that this actually gives her the confidence that she can fight at the front. And look, she honestly was up and alongside Lorena Weebus in that sprint. It was very, very close across the line between the two of them. And she hasn't done a lot of classics, Allie. She doesn't love it. And I would love to see her, yeah, Hollywood: Yeah, I know, just a mess, just an absolute f- ⁓ Yes. Mark O'Brien: you Hollywood: Yep. Tils: just really focus on the spring and get a confidence up with it. But gents, a fantastic, I guess, like, I don't know, eight hours of cycling over the weekend and one of the best monuments, yes, plus. Hollywood: Plus, plus, plus, great three hours of football, West Coast Eagles, can we talk about ⁓ that? 30 points down, yeah. ⁓ Mark O'Brien: Yeah, yeah, no, was. Another pod, mate. Yeah. But I would genuinely say, Tills, that is some of the most, like how entertained I've been in a bike race for a long time. think, as you alluded to earlier, like it's hard to dislike Pog, even though he's dominant. This wasn't dominant necessarily. This was on the edge of your seat. Can he do it? Because this was the incredibly hard one for him to get right and to win. Tils: you Mmm. Hollywood: Yeah, it was great. Tils: Mmm. Mark O'Brien: It was actually looking like this would fall the way of Pidcock. So I think I was actually on team Pogge here, just hoping that he wins. There's one downside is that now we don't get to have the will he won't be next year, or maybe he does return. We'll see, but he says he won't. Well, I think it was just such a champion way to win coming back from adversity on a course that's not exactly perfect for him. And just the excitement of how close it was all the finish. Like put it on the mountaintop, he's going to win by a mile and we don't even really need to watch it all down. Hollywood: Mmm. Mark O'Brien: go through it all. But on this, think it was so damn entertaining. It's a great one to show to someone who's trying to get into watching bike racing. Tils: Mmm. Mm. ⁓ yeah, gosh. Those scenes, what the scenes and the photos at the end and yeah, just a chef's kiss. Hey, ⁓ also on the weekend, we had the final round of the Pro Velo Super League, the season two wrapped up, baby. ⁓ I was in commentary from 8.30 till 5.00 on Sunday for only three hours of commentating. It was an incredibly stop start. Hollywood: Beautiful and beautiful scenery, yeah. Mark O'Brien: Oof. Tils: sort of disjointed it was it was it from a commentator's point of view just to take you behind the fourth wall very very very difficult to get into the flow of things but an enormous kudos to everyone involved particularly the writers absolutely the organizers this course unfortunately we couldn't really show it it was due to the conditions ⁓ that's gonna have to come into their planning for the course because this was the best course, hardest course that they've had for any pro velo race that they've done in the last two years. It was brutal. ⁓ 75 % of the men's and women's field were gone before the completion of the first lap. It was a circuit. Hollywood: Mm. Tils: at Moreton Bay, 16 kilometres, it was just up and down and stretching the field and disgusting all day. It poured rain sideways. Poor Sophia Sammons. Obviously as a commentator, you want to like build up the last lap and build up the narrative and the story for the very final moment of her taking the crown. She went across the line, which we thought was definitely still one lap to go and she celebrated and we were like, and she got that wrong. But actually, Hollywood: Uh-oh. ⁓ Tils: with one K to go, they called it the last lap because there had been a crash in the women's race. And so it was sort of very like, ⁓ and there's the winner. Hollywood: What did you obviously, did you say that ⁓ I saw on Instagram Oscar Gallagher get chopped and that that that was vicious wasn't it? Mark O'Brien: Yeah. ⁓ yeah, that was nasty. Tils: Well, so that was the women's, the Sophia Samans, well, finished fantastic, she deserved it. ⁓ Hollywood: Yeah, sorry. Tils: And I think fantastic for her to put that on her resume and hopefully take the next step. love it. She's going to have to do a lot around a bunch positioning and working in like big bunches. She does a lot of solo training. She definitely has the watts and the tenacity to be able to go to the next stage. It's just going to be a bit more of that skillset because you'll be thrown into the deep end if you go overseas. On the men's side, Hollywood. And we saw it from all angles as well. There's an amazing footage from RCA. Hollywood: Chop. Yeah, that's pretty bad. Tils: also Provello SBS, we actually got it from the front angle. Oscar Gallagher, no, no, no, not deliberate, but like Oscar Gallagher's skill to not crash was unbelievable. Hollywood: Yeah, that's what I saw. Was it deliberate? Was it deliberate? Yeah, he's good. I keep telling you he's good. Tils: Tom Cornish, Marco, he didn't mean to chop that up. What a great quick course down at Muzz. He got relegated to fourth position. That was in the second stage. then stage three, Oli Sims, we talked him up a lot. He ⁓ took Marco's KOM down in Tassie. He got away on the final stage. Mark O'Brien: Yeah. Hollywood: Yes. Mark O'Brien: you Tils: Impressively by doing that he went from fourth to third in the overall league and also second overall in the under 23. So yeah, a huge result for him and Oli Bledden taking the win. Mark O'Brien: You saw this. I think, ⁓ yeah, Ollie Bledum winning overall. That's great for Ollie. Levi Hone there in second as well. It's great ride for a really good fellow and a young guy. And then Ollie Sims, we talked about, ⁓ said, take one of my comms, the dog. But obviously that'll show you that he was in excellent form. Richie Port speaks very highly of him and he's just showing how good he is here. He by a minute solo. So he's going incredibly well for Cobra 9. Tils: Ha ha ha. Hollywood: Yeah. Mmm. Mark O'Brien: huge congrats to those guys is obviously a real, talent. And, ⁓ I think on that, so I was looking through the guys that I had racing, ⁓ it was really, really hard. Like you're talking sort of for two and a half hours, you had about 0.9 intensity factor. let's say for a lot of them around that 350 normalized power and all these going off on one solo by a minute. So, ⁓ I think that shows a huge amount of potential and you don't get, you don't get to show it that often in Australian racing. Tils: Mm. Mark O'Brien: on those really hard ⁓ races or mountainous races. So I think it'd be exciting if he can get over and do a few races overseas where they have decent sized hilltop finishes and things like this to see if he can take that next step because he's young as well. ⁓ I think I was talking to a mate yesterday, they're asking about the stage air that was around last year. sort of the I know the saying, ⁓ you don't really need it because the guys have got looked at because there's so much attention. But Tils: Mm. Hollywood: Yeah. Mark O'Brien: I do wonder if the attention was there because the stage air was there as the incentive. So I don't feel like there's been the same hype of like, Oh, Willie, you only ought, they're going to get the stage air. Oh, now I may as well give one to him as well, because he was also excellent. Um, I haven't felt that same hype around the potential for these guys to like, they obviously performing equally as well. And you'd love to see Levi Hohn as the, I guess, the first under 23 there, um, getting opportunity and Oli Sims, but I haven't heard any whispers at this stage. Tils: Mmm. Hollywood: Yes. Tils: Mmm. Hollywood: Yeah. Mark O'Brien: And Olly Bledden realistically with his ride so far this year should be getting an opportunity to ride for a world tour team straight up, but even an opportunity at the end of this season as well. ⁓ With his versatility, being an Olympic champion on the track and then a medalist at the Olympics, sorry, the national TT at the start of the year. ⁓ Yeah, really versatile rider. So I do hope they get the opportunity and I do hope Pro Velo finds the funding to go around again next year. Otherwise. Tils: Yep. Hollywood: Definitely. Mark O'Brien: ⁓ We may be heading into dire straits and Hollywood will have to come and start doing gravel races. Tils: No, I agree Marco. It did miss that narrative arc a little bit around, you know, the build up to the end signing and the handing of the jersey. I'd love to even see just like someone like NSN, ⁓ Keenan and I were talking about that actually even just like EFs, one of those teams that can really build on it and who would do really well with one of those riders. ⁓ But yeah, I think both of them deserve it. ⁓ Mark O'Brien: Hehehe. Hollywood: Definitely. Tils: Marco, you've to bounce, ⁓ go get and we'll chat to you shortly. Mark O'Brien: I do, do. Thank you, team. Lots of love. See you soon. I'll see you out on the road. Bye, guys. Hollywood: Alright buddy, see ya, definitely see ya mate.