Bobby and Jens open up the mailbag as they attempt to find answers to your cycling questions. How many races can Pogacar win in rainbows? What can cycling learn from biathlon? And what did Bobby just learn about his race ending Tour de France crashes?

All this and more in this months mailbag. Remember to send your questions in the comments below... via our Odd Tandem social media channels or at OddTandem@shockedgiraffe.com

Remember, to hear the ad free version of the podcast - head to Patreon.com/oddtandem

Hey, everyone,

it's time for another mailbag episode.

2

We have been after your questions

about everything and anything to do

3

with the world of cycling.

4

And, yeah, we've got a few

that have come in already, so let's get

5

started with this one from Kim,

who sent this on Instagram.

6

She says, I live at 28,000....

7

28,000m blimey, she’d

8

All of my rides

9

What's the power difference

compared to riding at sea level?

10

So I'm guessing

you know how much power lost you have

11

when you go to altitude

compared to sea level?

12

I suppose in your careers,

did you feel it?

13

Oh, yeah.

14

I have a spreadsheet for dealing

with every single altitude band.

15

I've never seen one from 2500 to 3000.

16

Let alone over 3000m.

17

But it is substantial.

18

I would say,

you know, just spitballing, like,

19

you know, not the perfect chart that

I don't have pulled up in front of me,

20

but it would probably be at least

21

40W difference from your sea level.

22

Wow. Big difference.

23

And when you were riding, you know,

what does that feel like?

24

You know, I been up mountains

and relative value, but I can't tell you

25

if I've been over the 3000 threshold

that everyone talks about.

26

Can you really feel

that difference, that step up?

27

Yes you can.

28

Well, first of all, the air

is thinner up there so you roll faster.

29

You actually with the same felt effort.

30

You're rolling.

31

You're moving faster because there's less

air resistance on the other other side.

32

That also means

if you don't do any countermeasures,

33

you lose muscle mass

because your body goes, oh, this is easy.

34

I don't need these muscles anymore.

35

So you might lose muscle mass as well.

36

And basically,

37

you breathe like a fish on the land

your mouth is wide open.

38

You breathe as fast and as hard

and as deep as you can, and you just don't

39

get enough oxygen or off the whatever

40

5 or 6l of lung volume you have.

41

You fill your lungs,

and it's just not enough oxygen in the air

42

to to to give your master

the supply, the need.

43

And that's

where you feel power drops and everything.

44

Just your entire performance drops. Okay.

45

Got another one?

46

Brilliant name, by the way,

this is from Fat Daddy AJ, which is,

47

you know, say the name again.

I want to hear it again.

48

Fat fat daddy AJ fat daddy AJ yeah.

49

First time messager to the podcast.

50

He asks, how do you overcome the fear

after a bad crash?

51

I know you've both had serious crashes on

alpine descent.

52

Yeah, the next, next year

we see you bombing down alpine passes.

53

So I guess, you know, after a bad crash,

how do you bounce back?

54

I think youth, youth is

how you bounce back.

55

Because the longer and longer

I went in my career,

56

the more difficult

it was to pop up after a bad crash.

57

I did break bones.

58

I did, finish my tour de France

not once, but twice in an ambulance.

59

In a time trial of all things

crash and two time trials my whole life.

60

And both of them

were in the tour de France.

61

But I never had anything, like,

really scary.

62

But I recently,

in the middle of the summer,

63

did break my collarbone,

and that was a big shock.

64

So I was 16 years as a pro,

never broke my collarbone,

65

16 years retired

and then wound up breaking my collarbone.

66

And ever since then,

these last couple months, I must admit

67

I am absolutely like a grandma

going down these descents

68

and I'm a lot more cautious

when I'm on gravel.

69

So, it's it's you got to get over it.

70

It's your job.

71

But like, once you start getting older

and you have kids and other things

72

you're thinking of doing

the rest of your life,

73

it gets a little bit more difficult,

I think.

74

What do you think Jensie?

75

yes. Being young helps, of course.

76

And if it's not a crash

where you cannot stand up anymore,

77

the first thing you as a normal cyclist,

you do jump back up,

78

check your bike, check

if the bike's okay and jump back on it.

79

And only

then you start checking your body.

80

But you kind of like you trick yourself

before your brain sets in

81

in a rational way and goes, hey,

maybe you want to go to the ambulance.

82

You have to be back on a bike and go,

the boys need me to team meets me.

83

I need to keep going.

And then you check your body.

84

So that helps

because you're a back in motion.

85

If you end up in a hospital

with the ambulance.

86

I had that as well once.

87

Then, Yeah.

88

If you're young,

you still feel fearless and, invincible.

89

If you're older, I try to have

the logic approach I taught myself.

90

Okay, if 30 bike riders in front of me

can take this turn at this speed,

91

just by pure logic, me on 31st

92

position, I must make this turn as well.

93

Like the 30 riders in front of me.

94

It's dry roads.

95

We all have the same conditions,

so it must work.

96

Don't brake,

don’t brake, don't brake, don't brake.

97

And then you make it.

98

And once you push through that barrier,

once it becomes a lot easier.

99

But also, like Bobby said, once

you get older, your priorities change.

100

You have children at home

and you want to be home with them.

101

And in the ideal scenario,

50 years down the road,

102

you want to maybe become a grandpa

or 30 years down the road.

103

So since I did not like to call myself

104

a shitty descender,

I invented a new category for myself.

105

I was a careful descender.

106

I just tried to

from try to stay away from trouble.

107

I was not slow. I was not terrible.

108

I was just careful.

109

So that was my own category.

110

Just don't know because you obviously it

111

when you got back on the bike in training,

was there was that still in your mind?

112

Were you thinking about that crash

113

or do you just go out

and back on the bike, you know, game face.

114

Let's go.

115

Not in training, not in racing,

not not in sprints.

116

Only when we had downhills

and we would go about

117

what is that, 40 miles

an hour, 65, 70 miles an hour.

118

That's I call them the bone

crusher downhills.

119

Like when you go down, you break bones.

120

When you go down at 40,

it hurts like hell, but

121

very likely

you can get back up and back on the bike.

122

So I left my comfort zone after that crash

when we hit, you know, 40

123

plus miles or whatever,

some 60, 70km an hour.

124

That's when I felt uncomfortable.

125

And it did cross my mind

once or twice. Yes.

126

Okay. Okay. Completely different note now.

127

Vern Loebssent this one in via Instagram.

128

He said,

we all know that Pogacar would win

129

wearing rainbows,

but how many will he win in the jersey?

130

For reference, Mark Cavendish

131

That's the first benchmark.

132

He said.

133

The record is, Mertens.

134

Freddy Mertens,

who he got 44 now and Pogacar

135

last year

got 25 race wins, from 57 race days.

136

So I suppose. Where do you see him?

137

How many races do you see him

picking up next year in that rainbow?

138

Well, let's just say cycling changes

at the drop of a hat.

139

I mean, you could have a season

like he had this year and then next year.

140

Not nearly as good.

141

You know, hopefully he'll be healthy.

142

Hopefully you won't have any crashes.

143

But there is no way at this moment

to keep him from winning.

144

At least a quarter,

not half like he did this year,

145

but at least a quarter of the races

that he's entering because

146

he he's just riding his bike at a

totally different level.

147

And, it's going to be interesting,

but I'm sure he's not

148

going to have any issues with the curse of

the rainbow jersey next year.

149

Definitely no

150

curse after curse of the rainbow

jersey for him.

151

And I am a big fan of Poggi of Pogacar,

152

but after a year like this

where everything did fall in line for him,

153

he achieved history making,

you know, the Grand Slam

154

of cycling with the Giro, Tour

and the Worlds

155

it would be almost impossible

to repeat it.

156

Have another 25 wins like that.

157

He wins anything between 10

and 15 races for sure.

158

But again, 25.

159

I wish the best for him, but

160

to have another season like that,

that would be almost unheard of. So.

161

But for sure he will be spectacular.

162

Like he will be great and easily

win 10 to 15 races next year.

163

Of course, there's

164

you know, the rainbow jersey features in

one of the greatest bits of sporting lore.

165

Probably, you know about the Madden curse

in in American football

166

there is the rainbow Jersey curse.

167

Did you guys ever hear anyone

that was wearing the rainbow stripes

168

talk about it in the peloton?

169

Is it a thing

that exists in the pro peloton?

170

I don't remember

171

guys thinking about it,

but it definitely happened.

172

You know, there would be a world champion

that would be in a grupetto with us.

173

You know,

he wasn't riding at that same level.

174

I think that's kind of natural

when you have such a peak

175

that maybe you kind of overcook it

a little bit in the next year,

176

you're not great, but you do have the most

recognizable jersey in the peloton.

177

So every single TV camera is on you.

178

Every single fan's eyeballs are directed

directly at you.

179

And and that's that's a pressure.

180

And you got to get that monkey

off your back right away,

181

because the longer you go,

182

the more lower is going to build up

behind that, that curse.

183

And, you know, the more pressure

you're going to have and ultimately

184

the more difficult difficulty you're going

to have getting that first win.

185

But it just seems like,

186

get that first win out of the way

so that people stop talking about it.

187

Yeah, yeah.

188

And very few have done it as quickly

as for it's

189

not even 2025

and he's already got one from one.

190

So yeah, well done of him.

191

Liz Bernstein sent us a message

and she said,

192

I do some local running and bike races.

193

I always get a little nervous

at the start.

194

The pros get nervous,

195

especially since it's more dangerous

and there's a lot more on the line.

196

And do those nerves go away after time?

197

So, you know, when do you feel nervous

as a pro and do you learn to deal with it?

198

I think in my

199

case I was the most nervous

when we had to big team plan,

200

when everything had to fall in line,

like whatever I had to cover had to do

201

breakaways, I had to jump in a break,

then wait on the next climb

202

Fabian Cancellara

would lead them up to me.

203

Then we would together

take over and Andy Schleck and Frankie

204

and Carlos Sastre would be there

and Íñigo Cuesta does a pull and.

205

I was nervous about these days because

there was so many moving bits and pieces.

206

They all had to come together.

207

Plus there's not a 20 teams.

208

They have a different plan

they want to put into action.

209

That's when I felt the most,

pressure on my on my shoulders.

210

A normal race is just a race.

211

After a while it's a job

and you have to is positive energy.

212

Just positive excitement?

213

But you're not frightened.

214

You're not nervous

only at some special occasions.

215

I mean, don't forget,

216

as a junior, as a

as a as a kid, as an amateur.

217

So of course there's time

to get used to the pressure feeling.

218

But yes, even in my last years eternal

occasions, I still had this nervousness.

219

Nerves per se, I think.

220

I think you're only nervous

when you have an expectation on yourself.

221

And that's adrenaline. That's motivation.

222

The problem is when you're on

the start line and you're not nervous.

223

I mean,

224

I would take two espressos to try to,

225

you know, amp myself up

and then basically be falling,

226

falling asleep on the start line

a couple times for,

227

for a couple of years, you know,

because there was no expectation.

228

I knew I wasn't good.

229

And I'm like, you know, just

it was drudgery.

230

Right.

231

So I think nerves are a good thing

as long as you can control them.

232

And that means that you're expecting

something out of yourself that day.

233

And that's a good thing.

234

Did you ever have a feeling

where the nerves overcame

235

you and you were so nervous

you did the wrong thing because you're

236

you were thinking about doing something

wrong or making a mistake?

237

Yes. With that many

238

races and like moments,

we have to take decisions. Yep.

239

You can do you can do mistakes.

240

I had a race where...

241

the Tour du Haut Var ,

where I was the leader for the team,

242

and I was just trying to be too perfect

to make everything so correctly

243

that I basically,

244

I missed the entire race

because I was just trying to be too smart

245

and saving it for that one punchy attack

And it I just messed it up.

246

Phwoar, 2002 or whatever the year was.

247

So yeah, that was a clear example

248

where I didn't have gotten

the better of me.

249

Well, I was going to say no,

250

but I realize that my last tour de France

251

was the crash in the time trial,

and I crashed on basically

252

the second turn of the time trial,

so I thought I was dialed in.

253

I thought I was absolutely ready

to to have a ripper of a ride.

254

But looking back at it

now, that that may have been nerves,

255

because who crashes in the second turn

of a of a time trial in the tour de France

256

and ends up in an ambulance

without having some sort of nerve issue.

257

But, I guess I kind of deleted

that out of my mind until just now.

258

Sorry for dredging that one up.

259

Now, this is another great name.

260

Night sweats.

261

No first name. I presume

that's not their legal name.

262

But they ask, what are things

that cyclists do that are a waste of time?

263

And the example they gave is

quite interesting, like ingesting ketones.

264

And what do they skip or not

that could be useful.

265

So it's things that cyclists do

or don't do that are useless and useful.

266

And what should they do?

267

Well, I think that anything that you do

268

that makes you feel more confident,

269

more relaxed, stronger is not a waste.

270

I mean, I've seen many, many things.

271

I've done many, many things

272

where I look back and say,

oh man, that was just a waste of time.

273

But I don't think there's anything,

especially a product

274

that across

the board is is a waste of time.

275

I've definitely done some crazy things.

276

I think the craziest thing ever, which was

absolutely a waste of time, was Jensie.

277

Do you remember those power cranks

that you had to keep perfect,

278

power around the whole 360 degree

part of the pedal stroke?

279

And if you didn't, they just dropped

em like that.

280

That was a waste of time, because it's

281

it was

trying to improve your pedal stroke.

282

And if you lapsed in concentration

283

for a second, you would basically crash.

284

So of all the crazy products that I tried,

that was probably the one.

285

To me, that was the waste of time.

286

Everything else I think has its place.

287

I mean, but the most important thing

that I think riders,

288

forget to do or do only in the off season

and then kind of let it slide during

289

the season, is is just basic

core stability, strength work.

290

I wish the years that I did that

291

when we were at CSC in 2004 and 2005,

292

I just felt better, I rode better,

I seemed to breathe better.

293

And then when I kind of got

a little bit complacent

294

and lazy in the middle of 2006, 2007.

295

And then when I retired in 2008,

I wasn't doing that.

296

So, that that's a big one for me.

297

And, to our listeners and viewers,

Bobby and me,

298

we were roommates for very long time,

and we were so opposite.

299

Bobby was doing the foam rolling,,

300

the stretching the core muscles

and reading books.

301

How do I become a better speaker?

How do I become a better bike? Right?

302

How do you become a better human being?

And so on.

303

And I was just laying on my bed

doing nothing at all but playing Gameboy,

304

building up empires on my Gameboy games,

or catching Pokemon in my Gameboy.

305

but weare both good riders

306

because we believed in our strategy,

Bobby needed all that extra training,

307

extra exercises,

the extra stretching that made him good.

308

I was just no erase and rewind.

309

The bike is done the is done

get my gameboy, get my book out.

310

So whatever floats

your boat is good for you.

311

But I have to say,

maybe shame on me a little bit.

312

I should have done more stretching.

313

I was did that.

314

I think I could have been quite

a few percent better

315

with more stretching core muscle training

maybe as well.

316

But stretching particular was always my

my weak spot.

317

So I think how many years

that took off your career?

318

Jensie yeah, you could have gone on to 50.

319

Correct.

320

I won't be still racing Pogacar

these days.

321

Absolutely. So we are stretching.

322

I think it's important

for muscle training. Like Bobby said.

323

I would really highly recommend

that to any

324

ambitious bike rider today.

325

I have one more thing

that I think would have made

326

a bit of a difference as well.

327

So when we get into the hotel rooms,

we have our suitcases and then two big

328

bottles of water like liter and a half

bottles of water on the nightstand, right?

329

So I would constantly be taking little

sips throughout the night by the end.

330

By the by, after dinner time to go to bed,

I'd have to go out into the hallway

331

and get another liter and a half bottle,

which I would have had finished

332

by the time

that we went to the bus in the morning.

333

And I always looked over there

and that big bottle of water

334

still had the seal on it most of the time,

because Jen's just didn't drink.

335

I didn't understand, I'm over there

like slurping down three liters of water

336

and he may crack it open,

you know, to, to get the,

337

the toothpaste, taste out of his mouth.

338

But but he never drank anything.

339

How did you manage that?

340

I can't go on any bike ride

without drinking water.

341

You were doing the tour de France,

and you just sort of know that that's

342

that's weakness, right?

343

I kept it very simple.

344

Maybe it was not the perfect way, but it,

345

it helped me for for a long time, though,

but and, maybe.

346

Okay, here's here's my one tip.

347

We had an osteopath Ola Ekblad

I believe, from Denmark.

348

And I swear by everything.

349

What is important to me

Ola was the closest to make a dead person

350

walking again.

351

Ola was an absolute out of your mind.

352

Unimaginable legend.

353

And I was really skeptical

because I believe in school science.

354

I believe in surgery and in medicine.

355

Things I can see and touch.

356

And then Ola comes in,

and he had this really deep voice.

357

Oh I can feel

your energy is blocked and bloody hell

358

he really made me better

and he gave me this little breathing.

359

Exercise. Okay.

360

Whenever you feel stressed

361

or you want to calm down

or you want to prepare an attack

362

or an important meeting,

or you want to go back to bed,

363

have five really deep

breathes into your belly.

364

Not like this,

but in your belly, in with your nose. And,

365

like powerful breathing out with your,

with your mouth.

366

And I still do that today when I feel

stressed or it's not every day,

367

but when every now and then it's.

368

Yep, I remember all I'm

going to do five times deep breathing.

369

And it helps you to calm down,

to relax, to refocus as well.

370

Let's just say, because all the CSC guys

had that deep breathing exercise.

371

And let's just say

when you're walking down the hallway

372

and you hear this, this

373

animal, I'll try to do it.

374

[QUESTIONABLE BREATHING SOUND] Exactly.

375

That's how it is exactly.

376

You hear all the guys in the room doing

that?

377

It is like,

yeah, it'll turn some heads for sure, but,

378

But wasn't that also some stress

breathing out that some

379

someone was, you know, were steering

clear of if they just had them doing that?

380

Oh, yeah.

381

It there was rumors

382

about what was going on in the rooms

when those noises were coming out of that.

383

Put it that way.

384

Okay.

385

Final question for this week and this is

from I'm going to get this name wrong.

386

So apologies, I think it's Jori Junghans,

and he's suggested something quite good.

387

This is about innovation.

388

He says, can you imagine

389

a pursuit style stage for a star

that's kind of a short,

390

mountainous time trial

where slipstream wouldn't be so powerful?

391

It's done in Nordic combined and biathlon.

392

So the leader of the race

would start first,

393

and whoever finishes first

is the new leader.

394

So you'd go off in intervals

based on how far behind you are.

395

And the guy at the top wins the race.

396

I'm not talking about a Grand Tour level,

but just to try it out

397

and change up the

the game for the athletes and viewers

398

What do you think

about that as a proposal?

399

I like that, yeah.

400

Absolute cool.

401

That's kind of cool.

402

I mean like you said,

we see it in Nordic racing.

403

He, he said it's the pursuit

but it's almost like a handicap.

404

Right.

405

So if you're leading you get a 22nd start

over second place and so on and so forth.

406

I think that would be pretty cool.

407

Obviously, you know, drafting even uphill,

408

it would be hard to start,

409

you know, but like we see it in

Nordic racing all the time.

410

There's just guys going off

ping, ping, ping, ping, ping and whoever

411

whoever wins, wins.

So I kind of like that idea.

412

I mean, we've done some crazy things

in the sport, you know, a team time trial

413

which turns into an individual time trial

at the end, like you're working together

414

and then,

you know, basically a lead out for the guy

415

and that guy actually wins,

not the team itself.

416

So even though it was a team time trial,

it was an individual stage.

417

So, you know,

418

why not?

419

I mean, we see some crazy things and

you know, we want TV viewership to go up.

420

We want people to be more interested

in the sport.

421

I'm, I'm for something like that.

422

Yeah. Me too. Absolutely.

423

We could even go more spectacular.

424

Have all of them starting, on their bike

425

in a starting machine,

like on the track at a position

426

they would have with the times,

referred into distance.

427

So we have a drone flight,

and the last of GC stands at the kilometer

428

zero sign, and Pogacar would be like 780m

further

429

down the road in his starting regime,

waiting for his start.

430

They all get released at the same time

because, you know,

431

we have the distance in not times

but the distance.

432

So and then whoever crosses the line

in whatever

433

five miles down the road, we have crosses

that line first is the winner.

434

That would be so cool.

435

It would need some try and era

to come up with

436

how many points and times refer

to how many meters of a handicap,

437

because you still want to

have good riders to win, but

438

you know, so.

439

But yeah,

that would be absolutely fantastic.

440

I mean, it reminded me of the

the short lived hammer series.

441

I don't know if you remember that

where it was sort of points and they did a

442

they did a sort of team time trial pursuit

thing to end where it basically ended up

443

with two teams of like nine

racing each other in full gear.

444

But I'm just sitting here saying,

you guys are enthusiastic about this.

445

Think of all the guys you know

that are retired that now run races.

446

I think we try and get this

on the calendar for next year.

447

We get the turn.

448

We've put the news out.

449

Absolutely.

450

But yeah, that's,

another episode of the mailbag wrapped up.

451

If you want to send us your messages,

just message, well, any of us,

452

or you can send us a message

on, shocked or off any of our accounts,

453

or you can just drop it

into, OddTandem@shockedgiraffe.com.

454

I forgot the email address

for a second there.

455

And we'll get your messages

read out in next month's episode.

456

But thank you to everyone

who's dropped this message.

457

Thanks to everyone who's listening.

458

And of course, thank you

to everyone who subscribed to our Patreon.

459

Particularly the person who is not me,

who is also called Mark Payne.

460

It was very weird getting an email to say

thank you, Mark Payne for subscribing.

461

I, you know, brilliant.

462

But yeah, if you want to keep listening

to the podcast,

463

just subscribe below

and you can, listen to the next one.

464

Till then, can can I say one special thing

to one of our Patreon

465

members, Philip Shama?

466

Philip had a terrible bike crash.

467

He just texted me, the other day.

468

He was in ICU for 34 days.

469

He has all but

470

two or maybe four ribs plated.

471

So his entire I think we have 26 ribs.

472

24 of them are actually are 22 of them

are actually plated.

473

So I just wanted to give a special

shout out to to Philip.

474

Glad to hear that you're on the comeback

trail.

475

You're off of the supplemental oxygen

breathing machine.

476

You're going to be heading

to the normal ward instead of the ICU.

477

So we just wanted to give you

a special shout out, Philip.

478

And, all the best in your recovery.