Purito had to tuck in his naked, snoring roommate at 2am
Good morning,
These are today's quotes and interviews worth your time, nothing else.
This stood out to me today: "The dude completely naked, drinking beers and eating sweets. The windows were open, it was ice cold in the room. I was completely covered in blankets."
¡Vamos!
🎤 INTERESTING INTERVIEWS
“He put on a movie in Russian on his computer on maximum volume, with a huge bowl of sweets — I had no idea where he got them from.”
Joaquim "Purito" Rodríguez on his roommate Alexei Markov
Purito Rodríguez has a lot of race stories. This one has nothing to do with racing. Speaking on the Puro Ciclismo Podcast, he recalled sharing a room with Alexei Markov at a race in Germany.
"The dude completely naked, drinking beers and eating sweets. The windows were open, it was ice cold in the room. I was completely covered in blankets. I had never seen such a scene in my life, how was that even possible?! And every time I started to fall asleep he woke me up with his deep laughter because of something apparently funny in the movie he was watching on his laptop."
At 2am, Rodríguez gave up. "I got up to close the windows. I saw the guy completely naked, covered in sweets, the computer open, and the dude snoring extremely loud. So I, just like a father, had to close his computer, remove the sweets and tuck him in.
"And yet, the next day, Markov was flying on his bike."
“The Vuelta Femenina will be decided in the last kilometres of the Angliru”
Fernando Escartín on the 2026 Vuelta Femenina route
Fernando Escartín, technical director of the Vuelta a España, presented the 12th edition of the women's race at a ceremony in A Coruña. The race runs from May 3 to 9, and the final stage finishes on the mythical climb, El Angliru.
"We've made a different route. There's no time trial this year, but there won't be a lack of incentives. The first four stages in Galicia have no big climbs, but not a single flat metre either. They could be days for breakaways or sprints. Stage five, the one in León, could see the wind as the protagonist. And then the big stages arrive in Asturias with Les Praeres and the Angliru," Escartín told Es Ciclismo.
He was direct about the final kilometre that matters: "The bet is clearly for the mountains and exciting finishes, in the image and likeness of the men's Vuelta. That is the concept we are looking for, that there is emotion until the end. This year the Vuelta will be decided in the last 4 km of the Angliru."
“He must do what makes him most enthusiastic: perform in the general classification”
Geraint Thomas on Thymen Arensman's direction at INEOS
Geraint Thomas, now in his role as Director of Racing at INEOS Grenadiers, spoke to Wielerflits about Thymen Arensman heading into a Giro campaign. The question of whether Arensman is better served as a GC rider or a stage hunter remains open.
Thomas has no doubts about the quality on show last year. "I think what Thymen did last year was incredible. I think everyone will agree with that, especially that second stage win where it was truly man against man," referring to Arensman dropping Pogačar and Vingegaard on La Plagne. "He really took a step last year. We all knew he had already achieved good results, but last year was on a different level."
On how INEOS approached this winter with Arensman: "It's mainly a matter of keeping things simple and focusing on the important things, and not stressing about them. 'A simple life is an elite life' is a phrase we use a lot." Thomas extended that philosophy into race strategy. "I think he should go there with an open mind. The most important thing, and that's how I always approached it myself, is that you arrive at the start in the best possible shape. From there you attack the way you see fit and how the race develops."
He added: "Stick to the basics, worry about the big picture and don't worry about all those small percentages — those sort themselves out when needed."
“It's a desperate move by the INEOS Grenadiers”
Brian Smith on Oscar Onley's move and the pressure building around it
British pundit Brian Smith spoke candidly to Road.cc about two subjects he clearly has strong views on: the retirement of Simon Yates and the acquisition of Oscar Onley by INEOS Grenadiers.
On Yates: "Was Simon Yates retiring a surprise? Probably not. They go away to these training camps for weeks, Tom Pidcock's in Chile — there's nothing there. It's pressure, pressure, pressure the whole time and some people just say that's enough." He didn't stop there. "What did Pogačar say at the Tour de France? He's not doing the Vuelta, and there was talk of one word: burnout. They're racing 80 days a year — in my day we raced 120. But there's no place to hide now. I can totally understand it."
His read on the sport's wider dynamic: "The teams are abusing these athletes, it's abuse. They're looking at riders as Formula One cars. Any tweaks they can do to help performance, they'll do it irreverent of whether the car crashes, is it going to save the life of the driver? They're probably not thinking about that."
On Onley: Smith said he was led to believe the move happened so late that Onley's flight to the Tour Down Under was already booked when it went through. "Okay, it's big money. But I think it's a desperate move by the INEOS Grenadiers, because they're under severe pressure to deliver in grand tours, especially at the Tour de France. If the figures I've seen published are true, it's a huge amount of money to buy a rider out of his contract."
He thinks Onley would have been better served staying put. "If I was giving him a bit of advice before he made that move, I'd have suggested that he should stay at Picnic-PostNL. I feel as if Picnic-PostNL developed him and it's a group he enjoyed being part of, more of a family team who were there to support him."
The move into INEOS changes the environment entirely. "And now he's been taken out of that environment, to an environment where it's 'we have to deliver'. And there'll be huge pressure on him to deliver a big performance."
"Can he do it? I hope he does. But he's up against some anomalies in cycling, probably the best ever era of grand tour riders." Smith's long-term read: "I think he's better looking at a Giro or a Vuelta if he wants to win a grand tour for them."
“When that online meeting was over, I closed my laptop and immediately felt that spark”
Demi Vollering on leaving SD Worx-Protime and the gut feeling that changed her direction
Demi Vollering rarely speaks in detail about her departure from SD Worx-Protime. In a conversation with AD, picked up by Wielerflits, she did.
"To my feeling, we kept hitting a wall. I often asked: 'What is the plan to become even more successful?' And then I got the answer from the team: 'What do you mean? We are the best women's team in the world.' That wasn't the point for me. I wanted to take steps."
She also pushed back on the image she felt was being imposed on her. "A certain image was expected of me: that I had to be ice-cold. Lotte Kopecky and Anna van der Breggen are very different personalities from me. That's okay, but I didn't want to change myself. I thought: I can be more myself somewhere else."
Her initial reaction to FDJ-SUEZ was resistance. "Jan (de Voogd, her manager and fiancé) came with that team and I thought: no, I'm not doing a French team. But Jan kept insisting: I think we should at least talk to them."
One meeting changed everything. "When that online meeting was over, I closed my laptop and immediately felt that spark. That joy. I had a big smile on my face straight away and I didn't even know where it came from. But I knew: this is it. It was that gut feeling I had been searching so hard for and that I hadn't found at other teams. I was so glad I had waited."
“I see things on social media where young riders follow strict diets and weigh their food. That makes me smile and think about how I won my first world time trial title by eating Nutella, scrambled eggs and bacon.”
Filippo Ganna on mental freedom and the limits of obsession
Filippo Ganna set a new record speed at the Tirreno-Adriatico time trial, his fifth stage win at the race. After crossing the line, he spoke to CyclingNews with unusual openness about what he does not do.
"Unlike a lot of people, I don't have a mental coach or sports psychologist. I prefer to speak to my friends who don't know much about cycling when I have any doubts. They can touch the nerve that I can't see and what I really need to work on." He is precise about what helps him and what doesn't. "My friends, former riders, my partner and my family don't think about watts, nutrition and everything on their minds. I prefer to speak to them than focus on every detail."
He tried a different approach this winter. "I tried to focus closely on my nutrition, but after a week, I cracked. I went back to doing what I did last year, and I don't think my performances were that bad. Eating less can help to lose weight, but when I ate more, I struggled less and still lost weight."
His message to younger riders was direct: "I like the methodical side of cycling, I like the research too, but I'm not exasperated like so many other riders. Nutrition is important, being methodical is good, but being mentally carefree is more important."
🏆 THE SERGE BAGUET AWARD
“I won my first world time trial title by eating Nutella, scrambled eggs and bacon.”
— Filippo Ganna, CyclingNews
Wonder what The Serge Baguet Award is all about? Check it out here.
💬 QUICK QUOTES
“This morning I didn't even know if I was gonna finish the stage.” — Max Kanter after winning the stage in Paris-Nice, Cycling Pro Net
“I'm not completely happy with how I feel. I don't feel super good.” — Filippo Ganna, despite winning the time trial in Tirreno Adriatico, Wielerflits
“The intention was to start relaxed. It was a good warm-up for the rest of the week. I'm already looking forward to tomorrow's gravel stage." — Wout van Aert after the TT in Tirreno Adriatico, Sporza
“I think every team wants him. He is a very interesting rider, but he still has a contract with his current team.” — Joxéan Matxin Fernández of UAE on the rumour that Paul Seixas could transfer to UAE, Wielerflits
“I know I'm in the right place to fully exploit my potential.” — Nicolas Prodhomme after signing a two-year renewal with Decathlon CMA CGM, SpazioCiclismo
“I went farming today.” — Juan Ayuso on how he avoided a crash in Paris-Nice by riding into the grass, CyclingNews
“We can be aggressive, there's no need to play defence.” — Magnus Sheffield on INEOS Grenadiers' options at Tirreno-Adriatico, CyclingNews
“Not many races are decided by four seconds.” — Jonas Vingegaard, unfazed as Ayuso claimed bonus seconds at Paris-Nice, Domestique
That's it for today. See you tomorrow 👋
Jay