Definitely Maybe: Can Ben O'Connor Secure La Vuelta Glory? | The Gruppetto | Eurosport Cycling

Welcome [Music] you are now in the queue 35,36 people ahead of you it's not happening is it forget that anyway good job you lot here the W SP what a week it's been and on this week's gretto we will also meet Carman small Sports director from EF Oley who has plenty to say on where come from where it is and where it's going but we're going away from the ticket cues and to week two of The La Vuelta recap Bu Thea said hello to week two and for those wanting a change from the extreme heat of the South it was good to be back in the cooler Northwest 3 minutes and 53 seconds was Ben o Conor's Advantage as he continued to lead the bua on a oneway road around Galicia to bayona with the rest of the leaders well protected behind while fat was feeling that it was good to be free of the shackles of teamwork managing to slide away into another Breakaway the Belgian is a force of nature in these situations and as his companions could do nothing but fade away from his wheel he beat contan pasi in a two-up Sprint to a third win at this race there was early drama on a fraught stage 11 with a big group up the road dick Atlant were Keen to shut things down the rest of the teams had failed to listen up but anyone else who tried to get in the move was going nowhere among all the noise and confusion Richard canip hit the deck and wouldn't quite be crying his heart out at what he thought caused it but definitely complained maybe he was right whatever the race would move on the stage Was Won by Eddie Dunbar who scored his first number one in a grand tour behind that superb victory for the Irishman little by little RIT and the rest were continuing to chip away at the red jerseys lead just over 30 seconds gone with the Slovenian making the difference by the Finish Line in padron another day another tough route and another Breakaway win this time there were no changes at the top of the GC but there was an emotional finish at the mansan ski resort just hours after team president Manolo ascona had passed away Ken farmer took their first ever St agage win at their home gr tour the young man to deliver it was Pablo Casto showing he had the heart of a star to hang on with bigger names chasing the 23-year-old climber from Aragon marking his 3-we race debut with a ride that also served as his Maiden Pro win unknown to most before this bua now familiar to Millions stage 13 took the pelan to the much feared Puerto the anaris and along the way there was another break away list of riders longer than the queue for tickets to see you know who Michael Woods won the battle for the stage ahead of Maro Schmidt and the everpresent markul but the headlines came 10 minutes after the winner had crossed the line when it was starting to seem like OK Conor's lead wouldn't live forever a quick peep of what was to come again at the weekend ramps well up into double digit percentages and seeing RIT take almost 2 minutes back but this time also put distance between himself and other contenders most notably emri Mass 1 minute and 21 seconds now the distance between the red jersey from Down Under And Rog the three-time winner while half the world was away as part of the queue on Saturday the Welter provided a stage perfect for that rocking chair Siesta or just to keep pressing refresh the race was well controlled a bit of waiting but no Dynamic pricing anyone out of the game here despite the main GC squads deciding that there was nothing worth working for on the climbs the last few kilometers down hill to the Finish were super sonic yes you knew I was going to get that one in didn't you a bunch Sprint at the end of a Mountain Stage the buelter out buttering itself and this time fat failed to roll with Kaden Groves who crossed the white line first came out on top and made it happen for the second time at this race the the Sunday Morning Call time was slightly earlier a big stage in the mountains was ahead as week two came to a full-on close with a first visit to quo negr for over a decade the pelan would Soldier on fighting for the first few climbs as a break took its time to get the Gap the chance of another stage for those out front faded in and out all day long with anything still possible as onlookers wondered what would happen on the final wall likee climb the the gloomy atmosphere there wasn't quite the forecast Cloud burst but underneath the sky of a cloudy Misty asuras the welta again dug out its greatest hits pavl COV and Alexander vlasov were at the front with that man Casto once more despite looking like he was struggling there will be another bottle of winning champagne for Casto and if the rumors around him definitely may be signing for a top World Tour team a true they'll be hoping that the young star hasn't quite reached the Supernova stage just yet for the GC Riders it was legs against Mountain grit versus gradient and put your money where your mouth is time rit's initial acceleration and GAP look good at that point some might have said the race was already over but back came mass and crucially O Conor continued to fight a little further back to prevent himself falling down the standings on the road emerging out of the Mist with a 38 8 second advantage on the overall leader mass and rogl crossed the line together that meant that the Australian had held on to the red jersey with six stages still to go a week away from stopping the clocks in Madrid however RIT was given a 202 time penalty for drafting behind a team car after a planned bike change before the final climb may be a time to insert a comment about Not Looking Back in Anger here so there they were now now here they are plenty of confusion but nothing's ever the same at this bu with Ben o Conor taking a lead albeit just by a minute and 3 seconds ahead of Primos RIT into wector of the race Emrick mass is in third at Renewi Tour 223 playing the bside this week to the bua was the renew tour a chance for the classics Riders to go Ed it out on the roads of the Benelux and another Tim Well's master plan was written Jonathan Milan took the first and third verses with a TT stage win chorus sung loud and proud by Alex seard on day two that gave him the race lead any hopes of unseating him on stage four were probably all in the mind as it ended with Sprint success for yasper philipson but seart will have been asking where did it all go wrong on the final stage the answer lay not in the Looking Glass but more appropriately for cycling on the mo in Herberger where he almost lost a minute to wellin and better man on the day stage winner AR Tim wellin getting his renew tour band back together for a fourth overall win so how did we do let us know in the Carmen Small on The Gruppetto comments before but I think I can hear the groans from here let's move on shall we back to serious stuff because kman small was a superb bike rider national champion on the bike director of national champ now off it as a sports director at EF education Ole I met her last week and she had plenty to say Comm and small thank you for joining us on the group PTO pleasure to have you on a delight to have you on just over a week after the to FR fam a Swift and I'm sure what was an amazing adventure first of all have you had chance to decompress and recover yeah just a few days ago so I'm uh I'm still I was sleeping well let's say that well for those who don't know you you are a former two-time National time trial Champion you've been on the podium at the worlds a top rider in the classics as well but a few years ago you swapped the bike for the car you're now one of the top DS's um how's that career been so far because I know you've been in two or three different teams you're currently with e f y so I started out like in the same season um I suffered a concussion and wasn't able to come back and then that season I became a director um kind of uh a shock like I wasn't expecting that to happen so quickly um but it it worked out and then I was on vir two until they closed the team um and then and moved to a few teams and then um yeah so I was on jumbo last year and then they made the new EF team um and I moved with Ezra there so yeah you're very happy then I guess at EF because it's a completely new setup isn't I know there used to be an EF team but this is a completely new setup yeah exactly so it was uh tibco before so I actually raised for tibco as a writer um but this is absolutely new team um it's a part of the men's EF team so that's yeah it's really brilliant because they have all the infastructure and and everything is pretty set up so we were able to come in and really integrate easily um yeah super happy there I have fellow Americans also which is nice it's new for me um I've always been the forign one on the teams um but we're well-rounded it's very International um and yeah we have a really close like women's group that we work with so that's also really nice so how's the Education First 2024 Season So Far season gone so far then for EF yeah I don't think we can complain um I'm not sure how many wins but quite a few um I think we've basically checked off almost all of our goals that we had for the season um we which we had the Riders set themselves so that was pretty exciting and at first we were like these are pretty lofty goals but let's go for it and so it's been a really nice first year I think no one really expected um such great results from us and I think my favorite thing is that we won with so many different writers I mean you you talk about the success now the goals but that only breeds wanted to set Higher Goals for next year doesn't it and I guess that with transfer season in full swing and all that sort of stuff that sort of of in play now is it right now we're speaking what 22nd of August yeah I'm uh I'm I'm kind of out of the loop completely on that one um but I think we're almost finished with our roster for next year um which is nice we don't have so many girls doing like any turnover because we had a lot of long-term contracts which is good but so we definitely keep like that Core group together and uh yeah we look forward to next year for sure so in terms of the Cycling Tranfer Window transfers because I mean it's always an interesting I find that cycling transfers happen sort of away from the Gaze of the public and not many people know what's happening it's not like when you sort of log on to the soccer websites the football and you said now such and such he in talks with this team doesn't seem to happen as openly in cycling so in terms of what you've experienced in your career as both Rider and DS i' imagine it's changing at quite a pace I think across the sport is changing across the pace we seem to be have more movement between teams now um is that just generally the thing of agents and general managers or do you DS's have an input as well into who you might like to come and ride yeah definitely we give a lot of input um and because we're at the race so we see a lot going on I guess so I think it's for pretty valuable to the the manager I'm I'm more than happy not to deal with it to be honest on virtue I I did and I didn't love like signing contracts and negotiating um so it was really it's really nice that I really have nothing to do with the contracts um and we leave that up to Ezra and I think now dealing with all the managers this is a big change in women cycling I think if you don't have a manager I think there's more girls with managers than without at this point uh at the world tour level uh which which is good I mean I think that it's also a necessary thing um Everything Has Come pretty fast in the last three years for the women um some good and some bad but I think the manager thing was just waiting to happen so I'm glad I don't have to deal with uh managers and signing contracts though you talk about the pace of change that's one thing that I wanted to get in with you because as both Ryder and DS you've been in the sport at the biggest pace of change I Period of change in cycling would say not just on the women's side but the men's side as well things in terms of training programs have changed exponentially but on the women's side the the audience the standard of racing the economic you know recompense the wages have gone up absolutely as they should have and perhaps they should be rising more as well um what have you seen this sort of period of change in cyc how you experienced it because you must have seen so many things change yeah we were just talking about it the tour last week that like when we started um virtue it it was like we came to a race with two cars a truck and a camper and that was a lot staff and and a lot of people around I I mean we can remember doing grand Tours well they weren't grand Tours back then but the Juro was 10 days and sometimes we came with one director one mechanic and two Swan years and we managed I don't know how but we managed some of the racing wasn't as long that that's true um and but now okay it's better it's growing it's growing in a positive way like all the internal infrastructure stuff is definitely improving women's cycling I mean we need to grow to a professional level so that also takes people um but it has changed really fast in the last I would say five three five years it's crazy how much it's really grown um and some a little bit too quick for for the for us actually what what what things have grown too quickly do you think then um I think that we can't underestimate the smaller teams um and their value to the sport and so it seems like everyone oh we want to be World Tour we want to be World Tour which is great but we still need the smaller teams because we don't have an infrastructure like the men do with the Junior programs and the U23 so we can't really neglect those programs and then just grow on the top end so everyone wants to be World Tour everyone wants to have the best team which is great not every team needs to do it so I think that's one thing that we can't forget is are they smaller teams or the development teams how are we going to develop the riders in cycling so they're not just like coming getting their ass kicked and then leaving the sport so you know there's still some missing misses missing pieces to the puzzle for sure what other pieces do you think then should come what what sort of change should we be looking to implement in the next let's say two to three seasons as the UCI um I mean they don't listen but let's hope they got their ears open now yeah so I think that for sure we need to keep on pushing the the younger teams the development teams I mean that that can't be neglected um but also with the races I think also with the the smaller races like not having world not like not allowing World T teams to come to some point tws point. ons maybe even and maybe they just get to come to the pro races because the they need to race and they need to race at their own level and win because if you don't learn how to win at the lower um races then you never can really learn how to win at the bigger races so I think that they are reimplementing I think the 0.1 rule where they limit World T War teams to come which I think is a really positive thing but I think they need to do it more and maybe limit the amount of World Tour teams at this point because it really needs to be like done one well and right and have enough funding to really do it right on a high level and not just have 18 Riders and maybe six of those Riders really don't belong like it just needs to there needs to be a little bit more balance with the whole thing in Grand Tours going forward terms of the races um you know the the tours arrived now we've got ABA the jiro's always been there but obviously there's always been this problem of organization is it going to be on the Telly things like that it seems like it was better this year from the outside looking in again I was working on the tour to France so I can't comment on how it might have been um in terms of the three big races do we want more days do we want them to stay as they are what do we want from those three big races going forward um I think that the visibility now is really good um like you can basically watch it somewhere um but I do think we need more days like to be honest it it's weird to call it a grand two or I almost don't like to because it's not I I mean we I go to our Dash in two weeks and it's six or seven days so why is this or like CMAC tour it's actually the same length as the tour but we're not calling CMAC a grand tour so to me that's a little bit strange um I would like to see it to be like 10 to 12 days I think we don't need more um because you don't want a three- we Grand Tour then we don't need it we definitely don't need it we don't need I mean also because we don't have the capabilities to do that right now you have to have a lot of Staff you have to have more cars I mean there's a lot more than just saying oh let's go race for three weeks it's a lot of things behind the scenes so I think if we start out like we had the jro 10 days I think it's was great maybe 10 to 12 Day races I think this will um you know push push the girls in a positive way but not overdo it um for where we're at right now I know you're working with the men's team as well and a lot of teams who now have both the women's and a men's section are sort of pooling the sports directors I guess that's a positive thing for both the teams because you know they're not employing a million extra people but also for for you as well to spread learnings to get to know different riders for new challenges you're off to the wela I mean the welta first week's been a let's say challenging watch at times with the Heat and the the slow days would you keep those races at 3 weeks I can't talk with them I can't talk about about the men's stuff I'm not in it so much I will just go help out like I helped out earlier this season with a few races but um you know if the guys ask me to come I'm more than happy to do it because I can always learn something um and just have a whether it's learning something or just having a new experience I think is very valuable um men's and women cycling is very very different sports in my opinion now going with them in and seeing how different it is now I really know it's a different sport um not in what are the big differences um yeah I mean I was really shocked about just the speed actually that was a big because I was driving the car so I was like wow we're you drive the car and sometimes in women's cycling it's uh yeah you you go a lot slow I mean 5k an hour let's say in the pelaton that is like 7K in the Convoy so it's a it's quite a bit different like you're driving instead of 30 40K an hour sometimes 50 60k an hour so you're really driving so that was a big difference for me also the amount of um bottles they consume just quite a lot I was I was definitely shocked on this part like uh really shocked and uh my arm was definitely uh sore and injured of Catalonia but just there was no gym required for a little while then yeah yeah I was like can you tape my arm or something cuz I'm not going to survive again can I please go in the S car but yeah it's just different and just so the speed but also the tactics are different I mean women's racing you still like have a lot of things that are unpredictable um maybe because of a divor I mean now they're adding these really long climbs to our races um that we really didn't have in the past so we we don't have any precedents um even even uh kind of we can even put in Ru into that category we have no precedence for rub still I mean we need a few more years to like understand really what will happen in women's in the women's races which makes it exciting because you really don't um as a spectator I absolutely love that it's something completely different than what the Yeah Yeah it's very exciting racing um but even like I had wanma from our min team come and join us for the vaa for a few days but he also is like the way they even move in the pelaton is so different um the way they are interacting with the cars are different I mean there's a lot of differences and and some makes sense because as a whole like we're pretty pretty far behind men cycling um I mean our professional girls at the top end are are quite professional but I want to say like we have a bigger difference between the best girl and maybe the worst in a world to a race versus the man which is pretty condensed until all of them kind of know what it should be going on that's just time at the top though isn't it and the money to filter down and you know more people to join the sport that I mean that's no sort of illustration on ability or anything that's just time and foundation and things needed to run their course exactly and just like what I said before is like you don't have enough girls to even fill in a full women's world to a roster in in a in a really high level so this is normal we need the development teams we really need to have like the junior teams and the U23 teams um to jump in and operate at a higher level to then go into the world tour teams now one of your big success of the Faulkners Rise season I think was national championships wasn't it as DS you went back and you were in charge of several winning jerseys I mean the big name because of what she's gone on to do then in Paris Kristen Falkner what is she like because she's gone from being a very solid Rider to an absolute Global Superstar now yeah Kristen is uh definitely a a bright star I mean I think that she has a lot of special abilities that are underestimated sometimes but you know her drive and desire to win is just as good as anyone else is in the pelaton so you put that in with the combination of like his physically able to do it it's a it's a pretty deadly combination I think so um yeah with Nationals it was good I mean it was really sad that she didn't win the TT of course that we wanted um that was kind of what we were aiming for um but it was good to see her professionalism to get back and and do the road race and give it a go and and to win um and then you know full focus on the team Pursuit so really at the Olympics it was quite a bonus that she did the road race um cuz that was definitely not in the cards um you know in my opinion I always looked at that course and said this is a course from Kristen um I think I even told USA cycling like yeah it's kind of unfortunate that she isn't goingon to race it because I think she can win um but you know this is how cycling goes so then so then it was kind of a gift that she was able to then race it in the end I think but she worked really really hard and she was fully committed to that team Pursuit uh I have to say that like definitely she put that as priority for training and and preparation so what an absolute Superstar I mean just getting through those final kilometers as well and she was she was still sort of the other one in that group wasn't she in the road race there you know just given the names that were there but I guess that's going to change going forward next year though and people are going to be more wary of you and you might have to come up with different plans in the car to to help her win races next year cuz people certainly be watching a closer yeah I was actually surprised but I think they were so tired about the end that they couldn't actually follow because girls know who Kristen is and they know that they cannot let her it's just like a Grace Brown or Ellen Van djk you can't give them Marlin Royer you there's certain girls in the peleton that you know you can't give them an inch because you're not going to see them again and so I think like for me watching the race on the outside Kristen was for sure the strongest that day um and so it was nice to see it play out because sometimes that doesn't happen um so it was good she's she's super Savvy on the bike as well so she knows race tactics she knew when she needed to attack and um it would looked like a brutal day on the bike so I think everyone was pretty on their limit so but I don't think it is going to change our tactics anymore than before I mean of course they're not just going to let her go but I don't think that was the case in the first place so she just needs hard bike racing to shine well let's hope there's more hard bike racing next year for fauler for EF and for you in the car it's been absolute pleasure talking to you Carman thanks very much for your time and we hope you come back and explain how things are going next season for us yeah I would love it superb to hear from Carman small there from all the insight into the peltin and the goings on if you've have any comment on anything she said you'd Coming up on Eurosport Cycling like to add to the discussion make sure you post below in the comments or if you're looking at any of these videos on our Instagram Channel make sure your comment below and share it with your mates subscribe and share to the more viewers we get the more content we'll be able to bring you okay we're moving on the weest final week and you'll be able to watch it as usual of course on the home of cycling Euros Sport and Discovery plus I'm Sheltering in hion where the race is going to pass through on its next stage at the start of week three it's raining outside and if this weather continues over the final week as well as the many thousand meters of climbing and big mountains to take on it's going to be quite the week isn't it can prar rogl overhaul Ben o Conor you'll also be able to watch the tour of Britain this week as we continue to build up to the World Championships that will take place in Zurich as well as you can see all of that live and On Demand on Discovery plus and on Euros Sport and too don't forget we've got the short highlights of the big races every day on our Euros sport cycling YouTube channel as well well as I said I'm in aorus I'm going to be joining the cycling podcast for the next week to talk you through the rest of the world desp I'll also be coming back next week on the gretto to bring you a few inside bits we'll see who we can chat to along the way to Madrid as well and also with all the climbs coming up time to check on and how are we going front the queue yet oh here we go here we go how much think I'll stick to the Welter don't you see you next week goodbye [Music]