Hors Delai - Pro Cycling Podcast Whit Yost & Joe Lindsey

Peter Sagan pulls off an unprecedented third straight World Road Championships, and Whit and Joe break it down: is Worlds somehow more suited to Sagan’s strength than any other style of racing? So, could he possibly make history as the winningest men’s rider of all time and win a fourth next year? Plus: will new leadership at the UCI portend any significant changes, or will it be business as usual? And what to make of new rules reducing the size of pelotons for 2018 - will it make racing safer? More exciting? Whit and Joe have opinions. Man, do they ever.

The Vuelta is over and it’s “on to World Championships” as a coach in the NFL might say. So Whit and Joe are moving on too, but not without a backward glance at the final Grand Tour of the year, to wrap up some surprises and disappointments and ask the question: is Chris Froome really a nice guy, or do his and Sky’s actions during the last two stages offer a different assessment? We’ll also talk about Slipstream’s 11th-hour sponsorship save and Worlds, of course, where Sunweb is dominating the time trials and a host of challengers look to deny Peter Sagan an unprecedented third-straight rainbow jersey in the road race.

Question: is Chris Froome unbeatable? Whit and Joe ponder the issue in context of the last week of the Vuelta Espana, where Froome has so far repelled all challenges to his lead, but is starting to show the barest hints of the strain of defending the red jersey for two plus weeks. Froome’s dominance stems from that of his Sky team, and Whit and Joe also look at whether that’s good for the sport of pro cycling. Should the sport modernize with a salary cap? Would that save the Cannondale-Drapac team? And Whit, ever the sunny optimist, sketches out a scenario where Cannondale folding actually ends up being not entirely bad for American racing. It’s a bold strategy, Cotton! Let’s see how it turns out.