The Time-Crunched Cyclist Podcast by CTS

Behind the Scenes Before the Tour with Alison Jackson

• CTS • Season 6 • Episode 316

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Days before the Tour de France Femmes avec Zwift, Coach Adam Pulford caught up with professional cyclist Alison Jackson to talk about the final phase of preparation.

From altitude camp in Boulder and heat training to tapering, race strategy, joining a new team, and life behind the scenes, this conversation offers a rare look inside the final build-up to one of the biggest events in professional cycling.


HOST

Adam Pulford has been a CTS Coach for nearly two decades and holds a B.S. in Exercise Physiology. He's participated in and coached hundreds of athletes for endurance events all around the world.


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Resources:

Tour Countdown And Setup

SPEAKER_01

The True de France Femme Aubek Swift is almost here, and we thought it would be a perfect time to catch up with St. Michelle Preference Home Aubert writer Allison Jackson. Allison, welcome to this show.

SPEAKER_00

Thank you. Thanks for having me again. I think I've been on the show before, I think. The Adam Pulford show.

SPEAKER_01

You have been on the show several times. The Adam Pulford Show presented by CTS, of course. But Allison just wrapped up uh with Altitude Camp in Boulder, Colorado. Uh, and with the tour right around the corner, we're talking about what preparation actually looks like during the final weeks. From training camp to heat prep, joining the new team, uh, race goals, and a few stories along the way. We're taking you behind the scenes before one of the biggest races of the year in the women's Peloton. So, Allison, how the heck are you and where are you at?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so back home uh in Girona, Spain, uh, with my my pet Rock, as you see. Um yeah, no, just uh having a bit of downtime before uh we head to France.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, always always good to spend some time at home before you go off to more big bike racing. So uh when do you travel to the start of the Tour de France from Adog Swift?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, so hopping on a little flight on the 30th, uh Thursday. Uh the race starts on the first. So get there just for like a day and a half beforehand. Uh yeah, liaison with the team. Get set up with all the staff and how things go, and do all the team presentation stuff, and then we're bike racing.

SPEAKER_01

Well, perfect. I can't wait to start bike racing because I think it's gonna be the best bike race of the year. And I just want to say a quick note to our audience. We are actually recording this about four days before the tour. And so when y'all are start listening to this, we'll be in full action of the tour in France. So just want to let everybody know that from a timing standpoint. But before we talk about uh the the bike race itself, let's roll back a little

Style, Creativity, And Camp Life

SPEAKER_01

bit. Let's talk about training camp this year, Allison. And I think the most important question I have for you is how many outfits did you bring to training camp this year in Boulder?

SPEAKER_00

Uh I mean, uh we always have to bring a lot of teen glows, but um I mean uh uh I I like to keep things a bit weird. So, but mostly it's just little additions uh and experimenting with some um uh shapes and colors, let's say. So all enough to fit into one suitcase. We're not going excessive here, but um, yeah, we did craft a few things while we were out there, actually.

SPEAKER_01

Yes, okay, well, great. Because for anybody who doesn't follow AJ or doesn't know about her, I mean uh that'd be weird, but uh Paraguay winner, multi-time Olympian, uh Velta Stage winner, multi-multi, multi-time national champion from Canada. She's a great bike racer, right? But one of the things that just like is crazy to me is bike racers need to pack very little stuff wherever they go. But AJ always has uh amazing outfits, and it's always like accessorized or whatever, whatever you do. But in camp, she's just bringing the energy like she always does, uh, with just like crazy outfits all the time, and it would definitely light up the room. And I think I've never asked you that question before, but like, how the heck do you do it?

SPEAKER_00

No, I mean, also I even if I'm at home by myself, I will dress myself. Uh, probably people would be like, oh, what do you like, where are you going? Or when I've had roommates, it'll be like, oh, where are you going? I'm like, well, nowhere. I just thought this was really fun, and so I just like being in my clothes. But uh I also think, yeah, the I mean, we spend a lot of time in athletic wear, but sometimes it's just fun to do something different. And I love being creative. And okay, we see that in uh, yeah, maybe my social media or my dance things, or there's a lot of other stuff that I do that is just uh creative. And I um yeah, love the world of colors and shapes that are wearables. Um, and uh actually, I mean, since uh last year at the tour, uh Dominique Powers, a great photographer and friend of mine. Uh, we've been doing a project, like other sports, they get to do like a cool like fashion runway show when they go into the stadium, like the walk-in fit and cycling. We never do that, partly because we're um we do a lot of like sponsorship things, and so we're always supposed to be this like very professionalism, whatever. But then I started cutting out my stuff, or like you can like the private school kid who's just trying to be different a little bit, so you're adding all these things. Um, but then yeah, we made like a full kind of like project out of it at the tour last year, and um yeah, it's it's really naturally just something that I'm doing, and it's fun. You gotta keep taking every moment to live life in a great and creative way.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, that indeed. Um brings the energy, like I said, very fun. And we'll we'll talk about uh the differences of maybe some training and preparation between Boulder this year and uh Tenerife last year. But on the clothing side of things, I mean, could you bring that energy to Tenerife? Because this is a very different environment.

SPEAKER_00

That's true. I mean, um, yeah, I did the same, yeah, to be honest. Yeah. And even just like hanging around in the cabin or the hotel room. Yeah, like uh last year with Endora, we did a uh Camp Before the Tour, and also just in the hotel room, everyone's like loungewear, and then uh yeah, I'm wearing all these necklaces and weird pants, but yes, uh yes, and that and then I the reason I start with that is it definitely uh encompasses AJ's spirit, her style, her flair.

SPEAKER_01

Definitely follow her on socials for more of that if you don't fully understand it from this uh podcast here.

Altitude Camp Science That Matters

SPEAKER_01

But uh to that point, um, between Tenerife and Dora, which are European locations for altitude training, which she has done with uh her previous teams, uh she was in Boulder this year. So also altitude, moderate altitude, 6,000 feet or roughly 2,100 meters, something like that.

SPEAKER_00

Six sixteen hundred meters.

SPEAKER_01

Sixteen, thank you. The strategies were different um between these years, and it was definitely much more organized. So shout out to Alan Lim for everything that he did, including uh letting me come and experience the camp and learn and spend time with you. Amazing. Uh, shout out to him and his team at Scratch Labs, absolutely amazing. Um, but from the organizational standpoint, it was just, my opinion, better. Um, we'll get into that more uh here in a minute, but like heat training, epochs, which is uh another form of kind of intermittent hypoxic training, um, hydration fueling, sweat testing, science-y stuff. To keep it simple, AJ, what were some of the takeaways uh that that you learned from that camp, just in terms of like what you learned for yourself to take it to the next level for the tour uh this year?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I mean, we really uh have the ability to be experimental on this team. It's a bit smaller team, but that allows us the space to just test and trial other things. We don't have um, yeah, a lot of expectations by sponsors or or um the way things that we've done or organizational how it's been. So um I think it was really cool to go to another location totally, new for everybody, um, which really allowed the whole spirit of the team to be experiment and let's try some things. Um, let's see something in a new way and see what that does and be really open to trying new things. Um so even for me, I mean, I've been in the sport a long time. I've done altitude camps, uh, but to to really buy into what uh um Alan Lim, uh, what Scratch Labs, what CU Boulder was was offering us in the in the science space. Uh yeah, I think everyone was really able to just like dive in that way. And also for me, we with all the science that we did and all the daily testing to really be specific about what markers are changing and what are the specific things that we're doing each day with hydration and and fueling, mainly uh and yeah, with the altitude and the heat and the heatbox, what are the things that are making triggering and making the difference? And then really seeing that on in a lot of metrics. So, yeah, for as an older athlete, I'm 37, to see that there's still more I can gain uh was really interesting. Um, and I think you only kind of get to see some of those gains by really giving yourself over to trying something new.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, no, fully agree with that. And from I don't know, a data geek over here, it was it was super fun to just see some of that science, see some of those strategies, and still um uh uh wanting to see a little bit more because uh information is still trickling in from that. And I think we'll use that not only for the tour, but also in races and years to come with you, which is really awesome. But

Gameplay Training And Practicing Wins

SPEAKER_01

another aspect that I that I loved was the gameplay that they involved, right? So the gameplay of creating race scenarios and situations as we're out there on a bike. So we talk about it before we head out, and we have these little segments where 5K, 10K segments with sprint points and finish lines, and uh Alan being on the moto and then kind of you know dictating and cueing us when to go. Meanwhile, we're broken up into teams and we played bikes. Tell us a little bit more of why that was so rich for uh you and your team, AJ.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I mean, in this sport, what is our goal? We want to win bike races. How do you you know we enter races for experience, but how often are we really experimenting with how to win? A lot of times we're trying to make the final, or or um, you know, you can do all the right things and then the last 500 meters you make one mistake and then you're you know out of it, you lost the race. Um this, yeah, we the way we trained at camp was really race specific. So I mean, we looked at the courses that we will do at this year's tour. We've replicated the courses and we raced on them. It encourages, yeah, team communication. It also encourages just like respect of how you see other people managing the effort and uh just being like, wow, yeah, this I mean, this person is so good at at uh yeah, this type of effort, or leading the team, or like managing the uh external environment factors, you know. Um, but also the more times you see finish lines and with your teammates, um, you're practicing winning. And I think we don't do that so often uh in cycling, actually, training. We train on our own, we train the physiology, which in order, you know, to make the final, you have to have you have to have the engine, you have to know how to get there. But then, I mean, that's good, but we really want to push it to be winners, and I think we just need to practice more of these races. And um, you know, we have a pretty new team. Uh, there's a lot of raw talent. And I I think if we want to accelerate our pathway to win, to produce more wins, then we're gonna need to have more of these finish lines, see the finish lines, test yourself how you what's the how much energy can you give before you have to make the move? You're testing your distances of sprints, um, speeds that you're doing the sprints at, um, how you're managing like other teams. And yeah, I think that was uh super good. I mean, for me, I love gameplay because I just love games. I love playing bicycles. So for that, I mean, it's it's such a way you get such a focus. Um, but yeah, I mean, we really want to take this team into the winning zone, and uh that's yeah, what we're what we're trying to do. And something that has been unique to this camp that we've never really done at other camps.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, I I would agree with that. And it's very, I would say unique to uh other teams too, where we you you just don't see that from pro Peloton on down. Every once in a while you do, but I mean how how rich is it? Because you kind of hit on it there, and we talked about this in Boulder, where it's just like, I think even as coaches, like a criticism I have is we're getting people super fit, super powerful, super strong, super durable, but like we are losing that element of play and losing how to win, right? And it's it's like for my developmental athletes, my juniors and stuff, I always say don't worry about the outcome. Like just focus on that process, learn how to win first, and then it becomes a habit, then we win a lot more. And so, like, we have and then you kind of like over race a little bit to get that experience, and then you enter in the elite realm of things where every race is kind of important, even though we still identify races that are less important to get that race brain back in, the race legs and the feel and all this kind of stuff. But the more you can organize that in a low-stakes, fun camp, huge. So, I mean, again, love the data, but I think one of the more powerful aspects of what you girls did up there was that gameplay. And also the other thing that for listeners, because this is hugely important, even for the amateur rider out there, is like the communication and organization that goes on with that. Because we broke up into little like three or four-person teams, developed our strategy of how we think it's gonna win. And then we had like team captain, protected rider, and uh we then executed our plan and we got opportunities to change that plan, to change the lead rider and all this kind of stuff. So we got practice, practice, practice to do better at it each time. And it was great, even for me, because I was on the bike with the girls and had AJ just being like, left, right, go now, Adam, go. And it was fun, yeah.

SPEAKER_00

It was so it was so funny. Um the roles were reversed in this moment. I'm coaching the coach. Well, coaching, I don't know, I'm like bossing them around. That was really funny.

SPEAKER_01

For sure. Coach AJ. And oh my gosh, it was so much fun, and and also being at altitude, and like you girls were up there for a couple weeks before I I was I was on my limit like every single time. So, for what it's worth, super fun, very hard, uh, but so important. And I think that for anybody who is uh connected with it, you know, to a team, loosely connected with a team, you do any races together, check out uh Freddie Rodriguez and his gameplay stuff. I'll link to it in the show notes of just like getting ideas of how to do gameplay on bicycles, or you could come to a CTS camp where we do a bunch of uh skills work and descending work and all this, and also the circle of death. I think we call it the circle of doom now. Basically, the ground is lava and be the last man standing sort of thing. All of this makes you so much more comfortable on a bike to where once you get into the race, you can focus on the game versus where's my FTP? Oh my gosh, my power, what's my breathing rate? It's all stupid. Focus on the game.

Taper Stress, Travel, And Sleep

SPEAKER_01

AJ, we are now in taper mode from that training camp. It's always uh the most stressful time for every coach, maybe some athletes, just because we're like, I hope they're fresh and all this kind of stuff. We use data as well as communication to drive that. And I know we've even like had some of those communications. Just tell us a little bit about the taper mode of you coming from uh Nationals and camp uh to now in Girona, and then we're just a few weeks away from the start of the tour. Tell us a little bit about the feels and how it's going.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I mean, uh camp was really hard. I mean, the every day was set up so that the fittest person on that day would get a really hard workout. So you really had to manage like how much you can put in, but there's always more. And uh yeah, and also with all these like gameplay things, I mean, uh, I'm gonna do whatever it takes to win, you know. Um, when I came back, then you know, we have this long travel, and then you and then coming back to uh Jorona to Europe, it's it's a lot hotter. Um, so the sleep schedule is a bit off, but then it's a bit warm. And and you know, you're coming down from such a scheduled camp, you know, everything is laid up for you from breakfast all the way to dinner post-dinner. And then now it's like an open schedule. It's been really hard to sort of like reset or or yeah, get into the rhythm of the new time zone and things. So, um, and then also just feeling really tired. I mean, tired from camp, tired from the travel. Um, and uh I mean, we we have a lot of days. We had more than 10 days before um the the tour starts. So there's time to play with or in to also read ourselves. Like, how am I feeling? Can we uh push a little more? Do we need to do less? We need to do more, like what's the freshness thing? And that's where, like, for sure, I need to have a coach. I would not be able to manage that on myself. I would probably just get stressed out that like I feel too tired, but I'm gonna be tired forever. Um, yeah, so I've been feeling like the legs are coming around, but um, yeah, it's maybe taking a little longer uh of the recovery time um than I expected. But I mean, we still have some days to go, so I think we're yeah, in a good spot. And we know, like from my history, um, I mean, I do so much better when I'm fresh, like mentally fresh, but legs fresh too. Um, there's a more I can give more energy to the race and to the suffering. So um yeah, doing a little less now um I will be a benefit for come the weekend.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, no, for sure. And what's fun about even for you audience right now listening, you're you're catching us like in the middle of that taper, and it's and it's almost, I mean, it's so rich. But like this, uh, we talked just before the weekend, and you're talking about, oh, not as fresh as I want, like sleeping's a little off, legs can do the power. And then the the training over the weekend's like, yeah, power's there, but just energy is a little on like scratching my head. I'm like, oh yeah, one of the and then you say as a coach, like, what are the differences between the years? Because we've done this before. And it was um, it came into my head, and then we just talked about this before we hopped on the podcast. He just has spent a lot more time, almost a month in North America before coming back to Europe. So that uh normally she doesn't spend that much time in North America, different time zones, six-hour difference before going back and racing. So that transition time back to Girona, her sleep just being a little off. And I think for everybody, you can do almost anything if you are sleeping, and that sleep schedule is just being knocked off a little bit, contributed to the lack of energy, even though physically there's there's we're seeing the signs of good resets. So yeah, I think like as AJ said, it's like, yeah, we just need a few more days and then we're good. And the good thing is we have those days. So uh but the taper is always, I think, stressful for everybody because the lack of structure, right? You like all of a sudden you go from uh you know training 20 to 30 hours a week for you know elite athletes, you know, 10 to 15 for serious amateurs, and all of a sudden you drop that by like 50%, you have all this time in the world, right? And for athletes who like we thrive on structure, whether we like the structure or not, we thrive on it. And then you take it away, you're like, who am I?

SPEAKER_00

What am I doing? Yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Right. Right. And a lot of us were kind of in the moment. We have to be as athletes because we have to tune into self, we have to tune into that game of the race, the the intervals, the sensations. And so when you're tuning into the body where it's like, I'm so freaking tired, you start to hit the panic button, right?

New Team Culture And French Lessons

SPEAKER_01

Let's talk a little bit more about your team because they're rad. And uh, you have a new team this year, um, also super French and super awesome. But does that pair well being a Canadian?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, well, um, I do feel like I'm becoming more like a true Canadian because I am immersed in the French language. And uh I think if I could come away from my years with Saint Michel uh as a bilingual human with French and English. I would I think that would be such a success for to be as a Canadian. But I actually it's it's such a great opportunity, honestly, to learn a language by immersion. The team has set us all the English speakers up with French lessons, lessons, and all the French athletes are taking English lessons. So I think it's just like a I mean a another great skill, life skill uh to learn. Um yeah, the French do not like spicy food, which has been really funny for us with the we like the chili crunch. I mean, we like pepper, all these things. I think there's one French girl on my team who is like we're opening her eyes to this like new culinary adventure of like different flavors and foods, and she's embracing it, but everyone else is is a no-go on um the spice. But yeah, I mean, uh I think it's uh I think it's a good little combo for this Canadian.

SPEAKER_01

I well, love that. Um, and I because I I figured it'd be a good way to talk about your French lessons, um, but I didn't know that they were taking uh English as well. That's that's really cool. I like that. Uh okay, so probably another question that all of our audience members are dying to know. Are the team members of St. Michelle Preference Home Albert dancers than EF?

SPEAKER_00

You know what? I at Team Camp, uh basically in the first week, I sent a very formal invitation to every team member to the inaugural St. Michelle uh Preference Home Albert 93 talent show. And um basically made every we all we had a few different houses that we were staying in, and so everyone had to come and bring a performance and it it ended up being a lot of dancing, which is great. What a great show. Um, but I mean I think actually the the girls um are uh have been really keen to maybe learn some um group performances, if you will. Um when I first our very first hing camp when I met everyone for the first time was December, uh for December camp, but it's also my birthday month. And what I love about birthdays is that it's an opportunity to make everyone do what you want to do. And my birthday wish, you can't say no to the birthday girl. My birthday wish was that we would all learn this one Taylor Swift dance to Ophelia, and they did. I went to every room individually, got to know my teammates, taught them this dance, and um then actually at the talent show we um tried to see if we could remember it, and so we also added that as a as a late addition to the to the uh schedule. Um, and they were good. So actually, yes, I think mostly to be a good dancer, you just have to be uh keen to try something new. And it's okay to be silly and look a little weird, which of course I'm the first one to put my hand up to be the silliest. So then I think that allows everyone to take a even a grain of that, and then they'll be able to do well. Um yeah, so I mean, I've been very impressed and I'm very, very proud of the team for embracing me and uh the dance.

SPEAKER_01

Love it. Yes, love it. And um it was the first time uh I mean, I I got to spend a lot of time with y'all uh out in Boulder, and and I also want to say thanks to your teammates for allowing me in and uh like trusting my wheel. And it's like, I mean, you guys, you had a lot of people kind of coming in and out, and then all of a sudden, like this guy shows up and having dinner with you, and it's like and I had some people it's like ha we're having dinner, and they're like, Who are you again? And I'm like, Oh, sorry, I'm AJ's coach. Um so special thanks to them, and uh it was just so rich because I got to understand all these personalities and humans that uh you know I I've been hearing about through the training peaks comments, like in the you know, race situations or camps and stuff like that. So it was it was an amazing experience overall. And you know, I won't ask you who's your favorite, but it seems like a great fit for the team. So maybe just give us a couple like bullet points of what made you choose this team and rolling forward, kind of like if AJ could be the the orator of where this team is going. Like, uh yeah, tell us a little bit about why you chose it, where it's going, high level.

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I mean, uh Canandale really was the connector for me to the team. Um, they've really wanted to just keep working with me uh after my contract was ending with EF. And uh yeah, uh after the introduction with the management, I mean, they're really keen to uh grow the team. Um I think we can see from FDGA, FDGA has been a team that's been around forever, the same as St. Michelle's been around for a long, long time. And FDGA is a local club, you know, took started really making efforts to be um a world tour team and that, you know, now you know number one team in the world. And uh I think that St. Michelle would love to see a progression like that by doing like one step at a time, uh one step at a time to make the changes and then and make that a really organizational um structure in place, and then from that, you know, build and grow. And uh it for me in my the later part of my career, this is something that is really exciting to have a new challenge for. Uh you know, my expertise and and my experience um has really been able to help the team uh learn and grow and also the individual girls themselves. And so I mean, I would love it to uh help this team become World Tour, but become a World Tour team that is winning by graces. Um, and I think that will feel really, you know, good to be a part of a long-term project, to be part of it in the grassroots and then and see it uh grow. Um, but the the team is really interested in trying new things, um you know, uh maybe doing things yeah, non-traditionally, and supporting the riders as humans. Uh and uh, I mean, they're the the French are so passionate and so passionate about bike racing. Um yeah, and they really want to have like a great environment between the athletes and the and the staff too. Um so yeah, it's been it's been a really great team to be part of. I mean, honestly, all the girls really enjoy the culture. I mean, they enjoy racing their bikes. They enjoy, we enjoy being together on the race circuit. Um, and I think that's that's something pretty special. And uh, a lot of athletes will get yeah, burnt out from the sport by being in an environment that they're not so comfortable in or don't feel very supported. And um, that's something that this team does really well.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah, that's very evident, just my time uh with you all and and meeting the Diaz too, super cool guy, it kind of makes me want to learn French.

SPEAKER_00

Yes. We'll get you on the we'll get you a lesson plan.

SPEAKER_01

Sign me up, that'd be great. Um Well, it this is this is awesome. I think it's

Stage Hunting Plan For The Tour

SPEAKER_01

time that we talk about the race. So let's talk about uh the Tour de France Femme, Avec Swift. What are you most excited about for this year's tour?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I mean, we're we're not coming with uh uh a GC goal. Uh we really are gonna look at individual stages. For us, I still think the team needs to uh I mean learn and grow. We're not seen as one of the favorite teams, but we can really use that towards our advantage in this tour. And I think um, yeah, we we have a good mix of riders, um, punchers, a couple climbers, um, and uh a few more like classic style riders. So um, I mean, we want to be a part of the race in the action. So I think we're gonna be riding a lot of breakaways, which uh was a pretty good plan uh that we did at the at the Giro. Uh I wrote a lot of breakaways. Um so we're we want to be a part of the action. We want to represent uh our French roots, if you will, the team roots in the biggest race in France. Uh yeah, and and see if we can pull pull off uh kind of one of these surprising wins, you know. Take one from the the big guys.

SPEAKER_01

That's right. Yeah, and that'll be super fun. And and you know, you've you've done that before. I mean, like I mentioned, Perry Roubaix uh winner in I I believe, if I'm not mistaken, even on EF, you were the first rider to win a classics race, right?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, the first uh yeah, on the on the female side to uh to well, yeah. I mean, to have won a monument, yes. Uh I think for any of EF, but um, yeah, to win a world tour race, yeah.

SPEAKER_01

Yeah, yeah. So I mean, we, you know, got the ammunition for it, but um too, I think that that is it's important for our audience to kind of recognize too is you're just watching bike racing. There's you know, the GC, you know, the big race, and then you have all these like little races within the race, whether it's a jersey or stage hunting, and AJ and her team will be doing just that. Uh stage hunting breakaways, uh very opportunistic. So it's gonna be really exciting, especially if you like rooting for the underdog. Look for the orange and green uh jerseys, and and that'll be that'll be them.

SPEAKER_00

Yep, that's right. Yeah, uh I think um I mean this this tour is really uh a hard tour. That there's a lot of climbing meters uh every day. There isn't really like a like a full sprint day, although I mean uh a lot of teams are bringing their sort of I mean sprinters like Lorena Weavis and and Balsamo, they can sprint on these like uphill after long days. Um yeah, but uh the the yeah, I think that these lumpy courses uh make the opportunity uh to make the race dynamics happen. Uh so hopefully we can be a part of initializing.

SPEAKER_01

That's right. That's right. Especially in the first half of the race. Uh second half gets into more of the climby portions of it. Um, but tell us about the crowds there. Just like, you know, anybody who's watched the Tour de France or the Tour de France Fama Bugswift, they know how wild it gets, especially on you know those uphills and in the finishes too. But from personal experience, I mean, what is it like to climb through those crazy crowds of people, you know, cheering and you know, patting you on the back and getting out of the way at the very last minute, and whether you break a baguette over your head or not? Like tell us about the uh the experiences uh behind the bars up there.

SPEAKER_00

I mean, yeah, honestly, the the fans are awesome. The fan I mean, and the fans line the streets from the kilometer zero, um, all along every part of the course. There's always people there cheering, and it it's super fun. Um and yeah, I mean, they oh I love it when people have fan zones. Like there's always Dutch Corner. Um, there's always a, you know, there'll be a group from Girona that's making a a corner. There'll be different like brands and and companies that you know make their own fan zone. But um, yeah, and I always have a a group of friends with uh uh well and Zwift itself always makes a um a tear corner, and I think it was it last year the at the Zwift corner. Um yeah, I mean I'm always like uh asking for baguettes or for cheeseburgers on these long climbs because on the days that I'm not trying to win, I mean, the the fan the enjoyment of the race is so good, it's so fun. And I mean, we wouldn't have a sport that we do if we didn't have the fans. Um, their energy, it just gives me energy. And um, yeah, I mean, I love taking baguettes from friends and and uh snacks and making a fun memory on these on these climbs.

Wild Crowds, Fan Zones, And Snacks

SPEAKER_01

Well, AJ to wrap this thing up, if if people want some of that like either behind the scenes action or or to follow your team or you, uh like where are you guys? Uh kind of what social platforms are you on, or uh where should we steer them?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, exactly. I mean, uh follow me for all the silly stuff. Um AliAction Jackson on Instagram. Uh and then also, yeah, the team page. Yeah, we're gonna be trying to make the headlines everywhere you look.

SPEAKER_01

So everywhere, everywhere. And I mean, that's kind of my like call to action for some people. I know you just got done watching a month of the men's race, but what better way to follow that up by watching the women's race here starting August 1st? AJ, if people have not watched the tour before, um, should they watch the whole stage? Should they watch the highlights? And I think the North American stream is still going to be peacock, if I got that right, and I will link to it in the show notes. But like, how should people watch if you could give an expert's view on it?

SPEAKER_00

Yeah, I mean, um, if you can watch the the very first part of the coverage, there'll be a lot of sort of interviews, recaps. You'll see some interviews around the buses where you kind of get the energy um of and see what the course is going to be like. Women's racing, because it's shorter than the men's race, to watch from the very beginning of when live coverage starts, which we like to hope that it would be the same as the men's, like from kilometer zero, but I'm not sure what's happening for real. But um, yeah, you there's so much action that happens. It probably takes like 30 minutes, an hour for the breakaway to get going. It's nuts in that first part of the race. And then um, yeah, I think there's gonna be a lot of moments during each day where it can be very dynamic. Um, and I I think we'll see the jersey change uh quite a bit uh through throughout our tour, which is really interesting. I mean, uh that that's what's also as different to our tour than the men's tour. The the jerseys basically once they're set, they're they're they're like that for most of the race. Um, and ours, um, yeah, it's an unpredictable who who's gonna be the winner in the end. Um so yeah, you gotta you gotta follow from from episode one to episode nine.

SPEAKER_01

That's exactly it. And we won't be doing episodes every single day of the tour like we did last year. That was absolutely wild, crazy, and a silly move on my part because it took away so much time in my life. But my mom called me just like a couple days ago. She's like, now when does the the the tour of the ladies start again? I'm like, wow, mom, that's awesome. She's like, Yeah, and I I bought Peacock, so just let me know like when it starts. I really had a fun time watching it, it was really interesting. So I'm like, yeah. So even my mom, who knows nothing, I don't, I still don't think she actually knows what I do for a living and been doing it for 20 years, she doesn't know bike racing, but she she loved the personality, she loved the story, she loved the dynamic of it, and it's just like very different than the men's race. So if you don't watch the Tour de France from Avec Zwift, if you haven't done it before, I encourage everyone listening to watch it this year because it's awesome. You get to see personalities like AJ, you get to see dynamic racing, you get to see baguettes flying everywhere and wild French crowds. So, AJ. Thank you so much for your time. I know it's very valuable, especially in taper mode. So thank you so much. And final word to you. Anything else before we go?

SPEAKER_00

Let's just try to get one of these wins, huh? That that would make that would make the year.

SPEAKER_01

All right. Well, thank you. Good luck, and we'll be cheering for you for sure.

Where To Follow And Final Word

SPEAKER_01

If you enjoyed this conversation, be sure to subscribe to the CTS YouTube channel for more expert cycling coach insights, athlete interviews, and performance tips. Thanks for tuning into this special episode, and we'll see you in the next one, so.

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Adam Pulford

Host