Life in the Peloton, presented by MAAP

Simon Geschke

Life in the Peloton is proudly brought to you by MAAP

This year’s Tour de France will tell many great stories; Biniam Girmay becoming the first black African stage winner, Mark Cavendish’s 35th record breaking stage win, and it’s looking likely that Tadej Pogacar will complete an epic back to back Giro-Tour double. But, behind all those headlines is another milestone; it will be Simon Geschke’s last Tour de France as he decides to call time on his 16 year career.

Back in 2009 I arrived in a small town called Deurningen in Holland. I lived in a massive house organised by my first pro-team, Skil-Shimano and, from time to time, my new team mate Simon Geschke would stop in for a night or two on his way from his home in Berlin to races in Belgium.

We had some great memories living in that big team house together, but couldn’t help but feel like the team were keeping too close an eye on us and breathing down our necks. So, the following season, me and Simon moved in together into an apartment in Kelmis, Belgium.

Kelmis was a great base for me and Simon. We were close to most of the team’s races, had some great training roads right on the doorstep, and felt a lot more relaxed away from the watchful eye of our team managers. We were like two students living together at university as we started our journey as professional cyclists in that tiny apartment in the south of Belgium.

I left Skil Shimano in 2011, but Simon and I have remained great mates ever since. Those bonds you make earlier in your career really stick with you, and I always found time to chew Geshcke’s ear off when I found him in the bunch over the rest of my career. Simon’s always made time for me, and since retiring and giving this journo lark a go, he’s been really helpful giving me some great interviews here and there - so I was chuffed to catch up with him at the start of the year and share a cheeky beer in his hotel room at the Tour Down Under.

Simon’s career is reflective of the type of professional he is. He’s always been one of the hardest working guys in the pelo, and has ridden 19 Grand Tours - including 12 Tours de France! In 2015 he cemented his place in history by winning stage 17 of the Tour with an epic 50km solo ride on a mountainous stage to Pra-Loup, and in 2022 he was cruelly denied winning the polka dot KOM jersey on the final mountain stage by Jonas Vingegaard. What a legend.

His career started in 2009 with me at Skil Shimano and he rode for that team - as it changed to Argos Shimano, Giant Shimano, and eventually Sunweb - for 10 years! He moved over to CCC for 2 years before signing for Cofidis in 2021, and he’ll wrap up his career riding for the French squad at the end of the 2024 season.

I loved catching up with my old mate at the start of the year, and I’ve loved following him as he rides his final Tour de France this July. He’s known for his amazing work ethic, calm demeanour and, of course, that luscious beard. So give this pod a listen, guys, and find out more about one of the nicest guys in the bunch. Simon; congrats on a great career mate - I can’t wait to share a couple of cold ones with you on the other side of the barriers next season!

Cheers!

Mitch

This episode is brought to you by our friends at Zwift Ride. Throughout the Tour de France and beyond Zwift are running rides across Europe.

Sign up here  to get your free ticket to one of the events listed below.

Europe - Tour Fever Events

Nice - Saturday 20th, Sunday 21st July - BrewDog Nice

Rotterdam - Sunday 20th, Monday 12th, Tuesday 13th August - BrewDog Rotterdam (Witte de Withstraat)

This episode is also supported by our friends at Pillar Performance head over to pillarperformance.shop and use the code LITP for 15% off your first order. Or for USA listeners head over to thefeed.com/pillar.

The Life in the Peloton book is OUT NOW! Get your copy now exclusively at maap.cc! Can’t wait for you to read it.

Life in the Peloton Chronicles: Grand Tours

This is a short excerpt from the longer episode. To listen to the whole thing and future episodes become a member of The Pelo.

It’s finally here! The Big Show! The Tour de France. The biggest bike race in the world is about to kick off, and to celebrate the spectacle Svein and I are talking all about Grand Tours on this week’s Chronicles. 

21 stages of racing over 3 weeks with millions of eyes watching; Grand Tours are the toughest races in cycling. Between myself and Svein, we’ve been on the start of 21 Grand Tours! Although I never made it to Le Tour, I did a handful of Vueltas and a couple of Giros, too - so I’ve got a pretty good idea of what it takes to suffer around a country for the best part of a month.

Sveino and I wanted to share our own experiences of racing Grand Tours throughout our own careers, but I also wanted to draw on some riders from earlier generations to see how much they’ve changed over the years. 

I wanted to speak to someone who has seen what it’s like at the front of a Grand Tour first hand, so first up I chatted to an Aussie legend; Phil Anderson. Phil turned pro in 1980 with team Peugeot and spent a day in the Yellow Jersey in his first Tour de France! The next year he finished 5th overall, bagged himself a stage win, spent 9 stages wearing the leader’s jersey, and went home with the White Jersey for the best young rider! He went on to finish in the top 10 for 5 years in a row, and completed 13 Tours de France over a 15 year career. 

It’s safe to say there aren’t many people out there with more experience than Phil. We chatted about racing Grand Tours in the 1980s and 90s, and I was surprised to hear how much more relaxed it was back then.

Next, I spoke to Stuart O’Grady. Stuey’s a rider I really look up to, and his career was just winding down as mine was kicking off. I was even lucky enough to call him a team mate for a year on Greenedge in 2013. O’Grady won 2 road stages of the Tour, and 2 more in the Team Time Trial but, as a Sprinter, he had to spend the rest of the time muscling over mountains to make time cut. 

Svein and I also chat about our own experiences. From the stress and excitement of our Grand Tour debuts, to the moment it all ‘clicked’ and we figured out how to get the most out of a ‘grandie’. The sanctuary of the team bus, the chaos of traveling around for a month as a small part of a big rolling circus, finding the best cannoli and parmesan in Italy or the best jamón in Spain, and heaps more. 

This ep is packed full of stories, and I loved reliving some great memories with my old mate. Get yourself in the mood for Le Tour and give this a listen! 

Cheers!

Mitch

Talking Luft Top 6's! Tour de France's Most Influential with Dan Jones

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It’s time for another Top Six! This week, I’m joined by my old mate - the creator of Greenedge’s infamous ‘Backstage Pass’ series - Dan Jones, and we’re talking about the biggest race of them all; the Tour de France. 

It doesn’t get bigger than the Tour. I’ve been watching it since the 1990s, but its history dates back to 1903! There are countless memorable moments from the race's history, and Dan and I do our best to whittle our favourites down to just six each. 

Our Top Sixes don’t need to be the most famous riders or most controversial stories, they just have to be moments of the Tour’s rich history that matter to us. It could be the first year we remember watching, a friend of ours from the pelo’ getting a result, or a small detail of a specific edition that makes the race stick in our memory. I bet everyone listening would have a different Top Six, and that’s part of what makes the Tour so amazing!

I never raced the Tour as a pro, but I’m out in France as we speak getting involved with the race from the other side of the barriers with the journos for the 3rd year in a row. Although he was never a rider, Jonesy made his debut at the race in 2005 and has covered 13 editions with Fox Sports, SBS, and Greenedge. We’re both massive bike racing fans as well so, between the two of us, we’ve got plenty of Tour de France memories to sift through as we each sum up our top six moments.

With Pogačar heading towards a historic Giro - Tour double, Vingegaard proving he’s recovered well from his crash in the Basque country, and young Remco Evenepoel making his Tour de France debut, it’s safe to say there’ll be plenty more memorable moments added to these lists over the next couple of weeks! 

If you’ve not heard one of these ‘Top 6’ episodes yet, I get together with an old mate from my time in the pro cycling circus and run through our top 6 editions of one of the biggest races on the calendar. Most influential editions, best riders, historic wins, we cover it all to give you a personal insight into our most memorable editions of the races we all love. 

I’ve covered the top 6 editions of Paris-Roubaix with Matt ‘Gossy’ Goss, Milan-San Remo with Dave ‘Macca’ McKenzie, and the Giro d’Italia with director and creator of EF’s original Rapha ‘Gone Racing’ series, Harry Dowdney. If you’re new to the ‘Top 6’ episodes, go back and give those a listen - I’m sure you’re gonna love them!

Get your ears around this one, guys. It doesn’t get bigger than the Tour and there are some amazing moments that Dan and I dive into.

Cheers!

Mitch

This episode is brought to you by our friends at Zwift Ride. Throughout the Tour de France and beyond Zwift are running rides across Australia and Europe.

Sign up here  to get your free ticket to one of the events listed below.

Australia Zwift Ride Events:

Thursday 11 July - Melbourne

Europe - Tour Fever Events

Nice - Saturday 20th, Sunday 21st July - BrewDog Nice

Rotterdam - Sunday 20th, Monday 12th, Tuesday 13th August - BrewDog Rotterdam (Witte de Withstraat)

This episode is also supported by our friends at Pillar Performance head over to pillarperformance.shop and use the code LITP for 15% off your first order. Or for USA listeners head over to thefeed.com/pillar.

The Life in the Peloton book is OUT NOW! Get your copy now exclusively at maap.cc! Can’t wait for you to read it.

Sleep

Life in the Peloton is proudly brought to you by MAAP

In this week’s episode of Life in the Peloton, I’m learning more about one of the most important parts of life; sleep.

When I retired from the professional peloton a few years ago, we were already wearing sleep tracking devices and starting to tap into how we can improve our sleep and, therefore, our performance. Since then, professional cyclists have stepped it up another notch and are hunting out those 1% gains to help improve the quality & quantity of their sleep.

I spoke to Dr. Ian Dunican - an expert on the topic - to find out more about how important sleep is, what we can do to get better quality sleep, and what happens to us if we neglect it.

Dr Ian’s a keen ultra distance swimmer and practices jiu jitsu, so he understands the importance of recovery and sleep better than most. We spoke about the increased societal awareness of sleep, and how humans today are so much busier than they were a few decades ago - stretching themselves even more thinly and putting even more onus on getting good quality shut eye to keep ourselves healthy.

Sleep science is a relatively new discipline, and Dr Ian talked to me about the different phases and cycles of sleep, various sleep disorders that a huge percentage of the population struggle with, and seemingly minor environmental factors that can have a massive bearing on how well we’re sleeping.

I also wanted to know about sleep and pro cycling. Sometimes you’re so tired from a stage race that no matter how long you sleep for you never feel truly wide awake. Dr Ian gave me some great tips about optimizing sleep around competition, and debunked a lot of popular myths around wearable devices and biohacking - which I found super eye opening.

Next, I spoke to my old team mate; Lawson Craddock. Lawdog currently rides for Jayco AlUla and is one of the first riders I remember seeing pick up a wearable sleep tracking device and look more closely at his own sleep and what changes he could make to improve it. We spoke about how much things have changed in the pelo’ in just a few years, and how things Lawson was doing earlier in his career have become the new normal amongst other pro riders.

I was blown away by how much there is to learn about sleep, and what a massive difference it can make. I’ve always been someone who thinks they can get away with 5-6 hours sleep a night and still function pretty well throughout the day, but, after chatting to Dr Ian and Lawdog, I need to rethink my sleep schedule.

Cheers!

Mitch

This episode is supported by our friends at Pillar Performance.

The Life in the Peloton book is OUT NOW! Get your copy now exclusively at maap.cc! Can’t wait for you to read it.

The Race Communiqué - Episode 6

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This episode is supported by our friends at The Escape Collective.

The Tour de France is here, and this week’s Race Communique podcast is our Tour preview with a difference!

I’m joined, as always, by Luke Durbridge and Tom Southam, who’d literally just got their fresh TDF haircuts, to discuss our takes on the race. 

Luke will be on the start grid of his 10th Tour in a row, and Tom will be hopping into his air-conditioned team car and directing what will be his 8th. 

The two of them have a huge amount of experience in and around the race, and we get right in behind the scenes as a rider and a DS at the big show! 

Before we got into the details of the Tour, there was plenty of action to catch up on in recent races, and I asked what their take was on the performances they had seen at the warm up events in France, Switzerland and Slovenia. 

Luke also took us through what it takes to get ready for the race and how it feels to make selection for the Tour, which is something every rider wants but not everyone gets to do. 

Meanwhile, Tom explains how this process works from the other side of the fence, what influences decisions and how it is to make the calls on who is at the Grand Depart and who isn’t. 

As well as our Tour tips and a hint of our tactics for the Escape Collectives Fantasy Competition (which we will be hoping to smash the armchair pundits in!), we also bring you the Communi-quiz, where Tom managed to find a board game to help him out as quiz master. 

We recorded right before we all hopped on flights to the Tour, so it’s as fresh as the boys Tour haircuts! 

Have a bit of fun with this one, and get involved in the Escape Collective Fantasy league here.

Cheers!

Mitch

 

The Life in the Peloton book is OUT NOW! Get your copy now exclusively at maap.cc! Can’t wait for you to read it.

Geraint Thomas

Life in the Peloton is proudly brought to you by MAAP

This week on Life in the Peloton we have a dead set legend of a guest, Geraint Thomas might be a Tour de France winner, but the Welshman is also, so, so much more. These days you could think of him as a Grand Tour guy, but ‘G’ has not only had an incredible career, but an amazingly varied one.

He went from being a young Olympic trackie, to a (very good) Classics rider by the time he was in his mid-twenties, finishing in the top ten at Flanders in his second attempt at the race. But while, like me, he is a passionate classics man, unlike me, he has also had the energy and skills to win almost every major stage race going, including of course the Tour de France!

We’ve seen him do some amazing things on the bike, not just winning for himself on all sorts of terrain - he’s won at E3 and on Alp d’Huez… but also pulling some truly exceptional leadouts for others, doing things in the bunch the rest of us could only dream of. Most recently, we’ve seen those measured efforts that keep him right at the pointy end of racing in the world of modern cycling, scoring two Giro podiums in the last couple of seasons.

I loved the chance to speak to someone who has had such an incredible career, and has adapted to the changes in the sport over such a length of time. His story is exceptional for his longevity and also his ability to adapt and just get on with things in his own - pretty cool, style.

To top things off G also has his own Watts Occurring podcast with Luke Rowe, and he’s handy at that too, which meant he was a great guest. This really is a bumper pod, and I am stoked to bring it out for you all this week.

Cheers!

Mitch

The Life in the Peloton book is OUT NOW! Get your copy now exclusively at maap.cc! Can’t wait for you to read it.

Talking Luft! with Jack Haig

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I’ve been loving doing the Top Sixes on this show lately, but this week I thought it would be fun to go back to the old-school style of Talking Luft! So this week it’s back to the rapid-fire questions, having some fun and putting our guest under a bit of pressure while we work out what their cycling style is all about.

We were lucky again to have grabbed Aussie star Jack Haig for this one. You will know by now that he loves a top ten in a ridiculously hard stage race, but at Talking Luft we wanted to get the really important stuff out of him: how does he wear his cassette? What is his all-time favourite kit? Who does he think is the most stylish rider? (Of course, he just went for a tall redhead!)

Talking Luft is always great fun to record and listening to this reminds me why I love making these episodes so much. Aside from the important questions on style, I also got to hit him up about some of the things that he loves and hates in the races; turns out he’s not a fan of echelons in the neutral… And we also got to share a great war story of his hardest day on the bike - which incidentally I shared with him in a grupetto in Poland (what feels like) a long time ago!

Anyway, I’ll let you have a listen. It’s a really fun little blast through a few of the things that I love about the sport with a great guest!

The Life in the Peloton book is OUT NOW! Get your copy now exclusively at maap.cc! Can’t wait for you to read it.

Cheers,

Mitch

Jack Haig

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Jack Haig is one of only a handful of Australian riders to have stood on a Grand Tour podium. An almost accidental pro who fell into a career on the road whilst surfing and mountain biking back in his home in Australia as a teenager, he has been a constant presence in the biggest stage races in the world since his breakthrough ride, winning the Queen stage of the 2017 Tour of Poland as a second-year pro.

While his consistency as a stage racer is pretty standout (he’s been fifth at the Dauphiné three times, which is eye-opening when you know how bloody hard that thing is!) his story off the bike is just as - if not more, fascinating.

There can be a lot of pressure to conform in professional road cycling but there is something a little bit unique in a lot of pros, and the best ones are the ones who accept that part of their character and embrace it to be a better rider.  With Jack, it’s been clear since the very early days (when we were teammates at Orica) that he was a rider who did things his own way and didn’t feel the need to fit into what was expected.

I love getting behind the scenes with characters like Haigy here on the pod. These are the guys, the opinions, and the stories that make the peloton such a fascinating place, and prove that you can do things your own way off the bike whilst being hugely successful on it. 

As well as the big results, Jack has dealt with some pretty serious setbacks too, crashing out of the Tour in 2021 when in the best form of his life. We talk about how he dealt with this and other setbacks, as well as what keeps him coming back to be in the mix in those super hard week-long stage races that he loves (watch out Dauphiné - he’s currently lurking just outside the top ten of this years edition…)

It’ll hopefully be a big European summer for Jack so chuck the pod on and get to know one of the peloton’s true characters!

 

This episode is supported by our friends at HVNM.

The team at HVMN have an offer for all Life in the Peloton listeners with a whopping 30% offer for orders when you visit hvmn.com/lifeinthepeloton.

Head across to RESTRAP.com to check out all their amazing products, and use the code Pelo10 for a cheeky discount.

RESTRAP have now opened an Australian-specific store! For Aussie listeners AU.RESTRAP.COM.

 

Cheers,

Mitch

The Race Communiqué - Episode 5

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After a short pause, this week we’re back with another episode of The Race Communiqué!

We’ve had an absolutely bumper month of racing with the first Grand Tour of the year, the Giro d’Italia, wrapping up in Rome just a few days ago.

Racing is what this pod is all about and we are going to be driving right into the heart of all the recent action with current pro Luke Durbridge and sports director Tom Southam helping me pick apart a brilliant few weeks of cycling.

Before we get into the action on the road though, the big news is the results of our first attempts at our sponsor - The Escape Collective’s, brilliant fantasy league game are in! We all had a bit of fun with this one here at the pod, and I’ll let you have a listen to see how we went. I would say though, that given the experience and knowledge on this podcast panel, you may be surprised by some of the performances in the league!

As well as covering the big stories at the Giro we each nominate our revelations of the race. As ever, a lot of the best bits of the race were the stories behind the headlines, and there were some cracking sub-plots going on with revelations like Georg Steinhauser and Guilio Pellizzari turning a few heads.

There has been plenty going on in the peloton outside the Giro as well. Luke gives us some insight into how the UCI points ranking is already a huge topic for riders and teams at the mid-point of the three-year cycle. Tom looks at the complications of even just getting into the breakaway these days before the super teams hoover up all the wins on the road, and why that will be a big influence on the way the racing goes in the rest of the season.

It’s great to get back to chatting about what is happening in the pro peloton and really get behind the scenes with a lot of the stuff that is new to me these days. I hope you guys enjoy this one.

 

Cheers,

Mitch

Life in the Peloton Chronicles: The story of GreenEDGE

This is a short excerpt from the longer episode. To listen to the whole thing and future episodes become a member of The Pelo.

In this month’s Chronicles Sveino and I have gone for probably our deepest dive yet - back to where we first got to know each other, taking a look at the formation of Australia’s first ever World Tour cycling team, GreenEDGE. 

Most of you will know the team - which is now known as Jayco Alula, already, and many of you may remember those first few years and big wins. These days it’s easy to take it for granted but when this team arrived in Europe it was fresh and very new, and it delivered right from the start - taking out thirty races, including Milan San Remo with Simon Gerrans in its first year of existence! 

As well as performing on the road the team had an amazing presence with guys like Dan Jones working to create the image of a real Australian team, and having a lot of fun along the way with a few unconventional ideas - like that infamous ‘Call Me Maybe’ video from 2012. 

For myself as an Australian being part of a team like GreenEdge was huge. It was as close as you could come outside of the World Championships to racing for Australia. The team represented a country and a culture, and for the international riders on the team like Sveino it was a chance to be brought in to the Aussie way and to be a part of a really special team. 

As riders we had both experienced the team from the inside, and it played a huge role in our careers, so for this episode we wanted to really get behind the scenes and understand how the team was built, what was the idea behind it, and how and why it worked the way it did. We wanted to cover all angles and hear about the parts that even we didn’t see or understand at the time. 

We were lucky to get hold of the son of the founder and the man who helped make it all work, Andrew Ryan, as well as head DS Matt White, star riders Simon Gerrans and Daryl Impey and our good mate Luke Durbridge who is now in his thirteenth pro season with the team. On top of all of that we spoke to the man behind bringing a lot of that fun hardworking (occasionally pie-eating) Australian culture videographer Dan Jones. 

Of course, Sveino and I also chip in with our own stories and experiences riding for and being a part of the team. 

This is a really special episode for myself and for Sveino. GreenEDGE formed a huge part of our racing career and there are so many memories there that this was a real gift to be able to record. We both really hope that it comes through to you guys and you take the time to give it a listen, it’s a big one but it’s a good one! 

Cheers!

Mitch