<p>For a decade <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/alex-howes">Alex Howes</a> dreamed of becoming America's <keyword id="6366594" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="cycling">cycling</keyword> champion, so when <a href="https://www.efprocycling.com/alex-howes-us-national-road-champion/">he finally won the title</a> last year he said it was "surreal" and better than he could've imagined.</p><p>But because of the ongoing <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/coronavirus">coronavirus</a> crisis, the 32-year-old from Golden, Colorado, has been left spinning his wheels with few opportunities to don the red, white, and blue.</p><p>"I've haven't really raced much in the jersey at all," Howes told me by phone this week from his European base in Girona, Spain. "But at the same time I guess no news is good news.</p><p>"I'm just the undefeated, undisputed champ," he said, laughing. "You can't take that. If there are no races on, we'll just let the American public assume I'm the best."</p><p>Howes, who rides on the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/ef-pro-cycling">EF Pro Cycling</a> team, had to fly to Europe before travel restrictions took effect. He now finds himself away from friends and family and missing home, in a country that is again seeing a surge in its number of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/covid-19">COVID-19</a> cases. "They're left and right," he said.</p><p>He hasn't competed this year, except for a couple of small early-season races. He got a stomach virus at the end of July, which meant no <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/tour-de-france">Tour de France</a>, a race he's ridden twice.</p><p>Howes isn't just another roadie. He often heads off-road and participates in what some call "alternative racing."</p><p>Last year he completed Leadville, the popular 100-mile mountain-bike race in his home state.</p><p>This spring he and a teammate flew to South Africa to race the gnarly Cape Epic, but it got canceled last minute because of the coronavirus.</p><p>Then, before he left the States for Europe, he and a friend <a href="https://www.efprocycling.com/due-east-for-miles-and-miles/">rode their bikes for 14 hours</a>, from the Colorado mountains to the Kansas border. It was something to do while racing was paused.</p><p>Howes said he likes the alt racing because he can do it close to home, and it allows pros to meet everyday cyclists "somewhere in the middle."</p><p>"That's really important at the moment because there are more people riding bikes right now in America than ever before, which is just incredible," he said.</p><p>"Not only do I want to encourage more people to ride, but I also want to get these people who pick the bike up somewhere during this quarantine business and help them become better and enjoy it more. We want to keep those good habits going anyway we can.</p><div type="image" title="Alex Howes EF Pro Cycling" height="1333" width="2000" msid="77941814" hostid="261"></div><p>"Our goals showing up to these quote, unquote alternative events was never to pummel the competition. We're really there more to study and engage than to win. That's not to say that once the flag drops we're not racing. We try as hard as we can. But the result is kind of secondary to the overall experience and process.</p><p>"That said, it would be nice, now that we've learned a little bit, to try and win one or two, but again, the COVID thing screwed that all up. So 2021, right?"</p><p>Howes said he's been keeping in touch with his teammates and other riders racing in France. (He has about 100 Tour riders' numbers in his phone, he told me.) Among other things, they talk about rider safety and carrying out their jobs during the <keyword id="43587" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="60" keywordseo="pandemic">pandemic</keyword>.</p><p>"With COVID it's been interesting following and talking to various riders, with how they're training camps have gone and what sort of <keyword id="8763838" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="covid-19">COVID-19</keyword> protocols and restrictions they have," he said. "I'd say everybody's taking it pretty serious — certainly with the Tour.</p><p>"But even with a heightened level of seriousness and caution, there's definitely some teams that are taking it a lot more serious than others, which can make it harder to perform.</p><p>"And really not even physically. All that kind of stuff is mental. When you get locked in a bubble for a month and a half, I don't care who you are, you're either an astronaut, and you don't care, or you're a normal human, and it drives you insane."</p><p>To cut the boredom he's been watching the Tour on television, "bits and pieces" anyway.</p><p>Do the pros watch the greatest bicycle race through a special lens?</p><p>"The biggest thing I find when I watch the Tour, I just watch it and I'm like, 'Man, bike racing is dangerous.' You don't really see it as much when you're in it, you know? It's a different perspective.</p><p>"I think of it like when you have a teenager driving a car. They're like, 'I got this, it's fine.' And then you're the old lady watching it from the outside, and you're like, 'That guy's going 65 miles an hour in a 35-mile-an-hour speed limit. He doesn't got that.'"</p><p>Because the US national championships were canceled, it appears as if by default that Howes will keep his "<a href="https://www.efprocycling.com/our-stories/">fancy shirt</a>" for another season. He said he's not heard from the governing body, USA Cycling.</p><p>"I don't think anyone's really working there at the office right now. I didn't get a medal in the mail or anything.</p><p>"It was just sort of like on Twitter. They were like, yeah, he has the jersey and he can wear it again."</p><p>All along, he's been "training the house down" for next month's <a href="https://www.giroditalia.it/en/">Giro d'Italia</a>, which he's planning on racing. If all goes well he'll show his American colors in October, a time he'd normally be roaming the woods outside Boulder.</p><p>After a nearly raceless season, starting the Italian tour cold should be interesting.</p><p>"Oh yeah," he said, chuckling. "I mean, luckily everybody else is kind of screwed, too. The awkwardness of COVID-19 is not unique to any one of us at this point."</p>

Tour de France notebook: America's champ was eager to race in his stars and stripes this year. Then the pandemic hit.

<ul class="summary-list"><li>The heavy favorites to win the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/tour-de-france">Tour de France</a>, which starts Saturday, are Egan Bernal of Team Ineos Grenadiers and Primož Roglič of Team Jumbo-Visma.</li><li>No one's really talking about the underdog American team <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/ef-pro-cycling">EF Pro Cycling</a> winning the race, but it could surprise, just as it's done by winning nearly every big race in the sport.</li><li>EF team boss <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/jonathan-vaughters">Jonathan Vaughters</a> spoke with Business Insider from Nice, France, on Thursday about how his guys hope to upset the top favorites — and why you won't be seeing them at the front of the peloton very much.</li></ul><p>Everyone's talking about two riders from two teams winning the <keyword id="45920" type="SPORT" weightage="60" keywordseo="Tour-De-France">Tour de France</keyword>, which starts on Saturday: Egan Bernal, of Colombia, who rides for the Ineos Grenadiers team, and Primož Roglič, of Slovenia, who leads the Jumbo-Visma squad.</p><p>No one's really talking about the American <keyword id="9843568" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="ef-pro-cycling">EF Pro Cycling</keyword> team winning the three-week race. But the boys in pink could surprise. They tend to do that kind of thing.</p><p>Like in 2017, when no one was talking about Colombian climber Rigoberto Urán. He won a big mountain stage and finished second overall in Paris, after handing Britain's four-time champ Chris Froome his narrowest winning margin of 54 seconds.</p><p>There was the 2012 Giro d'Italia, when no one was talking about the Canadian all-rounder Ryder Hesjedal, who won the race dramatically on the final stage by 16 seconds.</p><p>Just two weeks ago the team upset the favorites again, snagging the weeklong Tour tuneup Critérium du Dauphine, thanks to the tenacious up-and-coming Colombian climber <keyword id="9843567" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="dani-martnez">Dani Martínez</keyword>.</p><p><em><strong>Read more:</strong> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/greg-lemond-first-only-american-tour-de-france-winner-pandemic-2020-8">An interview with Greg LeMond, the first and only American winner of the Tour de France</a></em></p><p>In February, the team won the Tour Colombia, too, with Sergio Higuita taking the win on his native soil, beating defending Tour de France champ and compatriot Bernal in the process.</p><p>Beyond stage races, the team has executed its share of stealthy coups in the greatest one-day classics, as recently as last year at the Tour of Flanders, the biggest race in cycling-mad Belgium, with the Italian all-rounder Alberto Bettiol.</p><p>There was also Paris-Roubaix in 2011, with the Belgian Johan Vansummeren slipping away to victory on a flat tire, shocking just about everyone.</p><p>And don't forget Irishman Dan Martin's no-luck-needed triumphs at Liège-Bastogne-Liège in 2013 and Giro di Lombardia in 2014.</p><p>In nearly all those races, and through its all various iterations, the team now called EF Pro <keyword id="6366594" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="cycling">Cycling</keyword> has been the underdog, a moniker EF team boss <keyword id="320360" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Jonathan-Vaughters">Jonathan Vaughters</keyword> seems to relish.</p><div type="image" title="Jonathan Vaughters Tour de France 2020 mask" height="2000" width="2000" msid="77814803" hostid="261"></div><p>For years he's had to work with a budget that's a fraction of that of Ineos and some other top WorldTour teams, à la "<a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-uran-cannondale-drapac-tour-de-france-stage-9-win-2017-7">Moneyball</a>." Think $20 million versus $50 million. He has scouted talented young riders in Colombia and elsewhere, signing guys who showed promise but were undervalued.</p><p>So you can count EF out of landing a top result, but don't be surprised if they do just that.</p><p>The man in charge told us how that might happen.</p><p>"For us the ideal situation is exactly what happened in the <a href="https://www.efprocycling.com/criterium-du-dauphine-2020/">Dauphine</a>," Vaughters told Business Insider by phone on Thursday night, referring to the team's upset win this month. "We're not going to be able to overpower the race, like Ineos or Jumbo. That's not going to be our place in the race.</p><p>"But I do see ourselves, especially after the Dauphine, as the darkest of dark horses, where we're sort of like the solid dark-horse contender. What we have to do is wait for those two teams to exhaust themselves, like pounding on each other, and then take advantage of that situation. That's where we fit in.</p><p>"I'll say it right now, like, for all you television viewers out there waiting for our team, or who are going to comment on my Twitter feed saying, 'Why aren't your riders pulling on the front to protect your leaders?!' I'm going to give you a big spoiler: 'We're not going to be doing that.'</p><p>"One, because that's not the best tactic for us to win the race. And two, because we don't have as much horsepower. We're not just going to line up next to Ineos and Jumbo and pull on the front. And guess what? That has risks and rewards. Our riders might get caught up in more crashes because they're going to be farther back in the peloton. They might end up in a crash where they lose time or actually crash out of the race. It happens.</p><p>"But if we're talking about how to win the race — how does EF win the Tour de France — trying to match Ineos and Jumbo is a bad plan. We might keep our riders safer, but have no gas left when it's time to go. At the Dauphine, our team was not very visible. We were not right on the front very often like those teams were. We were 40 guys back. And that's where we're going to be in the Tour as well.</p><div type="image" title="Dani Martínez EF Pro Cycling Tour de France 2020" height="1501" width="2000" msid="77814804" hostid="261"></div><p>"That chance we have of winning the race is saving for a few crucial moments and then exploiting the opportunities when they arise, in those few crucial moments. So our objective is David and Goliath, to create a major upset that no one is expecting, and that probably no one even believes can happen.</p><p>"It's almost like I'm waiting for the comment section to say, like, 'Oh my God! This guy's out of his mind!' You know? It's like — perfect! Keep saying that. That's what we want."</p><p>While there's no single leader or "protected rider" on his Tour squad, Vaughters said, the three Colombian climbing "banditos" — Urán, Higuita, and Martínez — will look for opportunities in the mountains.</p><p>That could mean stage wins. Or something bigger — like a step on the podium in Paris.</p><p>The three have a great rapport, Vaughters said, with the veteran Urán a sort of paternal figure to the two up-and-comers. They listen and learn from the 2017 Tour runner-up.</p><p>Supporting these fast climbers in this climbing-heavy Tour are Bettiol, Britain's Hugh Carthy, Belgian Jens Keukeleire, and two Americans: Tour rookie Neilson Powless and nine-time Tour rider Tejay van Garderen.</p><p>With the dynamic trio stalking the big teams in the high mountains, surprises, and upsets, could follow.</p>

'The darkest of dark horses': How America's underdog team hopes to stage a coup at the Tour de France

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Dramatic <keyword id="43862" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="crashes">crashes</keyword> at the <keyword id="45920" type="SPORT" weightage="60" keywordseo="Tour-De-France">Tour de France</keyword> this week are making headlines.</li><li>Riders are crashing because of pressure, routes, and a careless spectator, a US team boss told us.</li><li>Such crashes are unfortunately fairly normal for the Tour, he said.</li></ul><p>We're three days into the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/tour-de-france">Tour de France</a>, but it feels like three weeks.</p><p>We've seen serious high-speed crashes bring down dozens of riders. In one incident that went viral, a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/crazy-huge-tour-de-france-2021-6">spectator caused a massive pile-up</a> when she stuck her cardboard sign into the peloton. In other crashes, we've seen riders "touch wheels" and go flying to the ground.</p><p>Amid all the <a href="https://twitter.com/cyclingreporter/status/1409532606903984131">crashing and carnage</a>, we've seen large groups of riders vying for position along narrow roads featuring numerous roundabouts and "road furniture" like speed bumps.</p><p>After Monday's stage, which saw several crashes - most notably those involving <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tour-de-france-favorites-ranked-2021-6">overall favorites</a> Geraint Thomas (Ineos-Grenadiers) and Primož Roglič (Jumbo-Visma) and sprinters <a href="https://twitter.com/cyclingreporter/status/1409533158027112452">Caleb Ewan</a> (Lotto-Soudal) and Peter Sagan (Bora-Hansgrohe) - some riders complained about what they described as a dangerous route.</p><blockquote class="twitter-tweet blockquote" data-lang="en" data-cards="" data-conversation="">-Andre Greipel  (@AndreGreipel) <a href="https://twitter.com/mims/statuses/1409549312170803204?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">June 28, 2021</a></blockquote><p>There's speculation there might be <a href="https://twitter.com/SportsOrla/status/1409560292443426819">a rider protest</a> on Tuesday.</p><p>On Monday afternoon, I asked the Tour organizer, the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/aso-uci-war-tour-de-france-pro-cycling-2016-1">Amaury Sport Organisation</a>, about the criticism of its routes being dangerous. A spokesman said the ASO had no comment.</p><p>The crashes might seem extraordinary, but as US team boss <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/jonathan-vaughters">Jonathan Vaughters</a>, who heads up the EF Education-Nippo squad, told me, they are <a href="https://twitter.com/DonaldCookJr/status/1409577169752412165">unfortunately fairly common</a> in the world's highest-pressure race.</p><p><em><strong>Read more: </strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/defending-tour-de-france-champ-freakish-powers-recovery-2021-6">Defending Tour de France champ is a 22-year-old Slovenian whose freakish physiology and metabolism mean he can recover 3 times as fast as his rivals</a></em></p><p>Vaughters was a pro cyclist for a decade and raced in the Tour four times before becoming a team manager. He spoke with Insider by phone from France after Monday's stage three, during which he said he followed the race in the lead team car.</p><p><strong>What's going on with all these crashes in the Tour this year?</strong></p><p>This is almost a little more back to normal, actually. The Tour is the most dangerous race of the year.</p><p>Last year was an exception in that it was very hilly and with some mountain-top finishes very early on. It kind of separated the race out early, and there weren't as many of these tense sprint stages where all the GC [general classification] riders are trying to get through with the same time, and all their teams are trying to get the same time, and all their sprinters are trying to sprint. You get this week of racing that sort of hasn't sorted itself out.</p><div type="image" title="Blood on the leg and shoe of Netherland's Steven Kruijswijk who crashed in the third stage of the Tour de France." height="1333" width="2000" msid="83939041" hostid="261"></div><p>For everyone the dream is still alive. Nobody touches their brakes. This is what normally happens at the Tour. Nobody hits their brakes. Everyone fights for position, unlike they do at any other races. It's at a much more severe level, and no one ever touches their brakes.</p><p>Then you get a parcours [route] like today where it's incredibly dangerous - a poorly designed parcours with tons of roundabouts, tons of road furniture, tons of planters, concrete bunkers, God knows what. Like a million and a half speed bumps. And it's a bad combination, a bad mixture. I mean, I hate to say it, but what happened today was not a surprise.</p><p><em><strong>Read more: </strong><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tour-de-france-mom-saves-child-crashing-cyclists-2021-6">Watch 'mom of the year' save her kid from all these Tour de France riders crashing around them</a></em></p><p>The other day it was a cardboard sign, and that was horrible, but, you know, most races don't have as many spectators, most races don't have as many people trying to get on TV. Most races also don't have the peloton jamming itself all the way from one side of the road to the other because everyone is fighting for their life - literally - to be at the front.</p><p>I don't think you can blame it on one thing. The fact is the Tour de France is the highest-pressure race in the world. It's the biggest stage for <keyword id="6366594" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="cycling">cycling</keyword> in the world. And nobody hits the brakes. In other races, they'd be, like, 'Oh, this is a dangerous situation. I'd better slow down a bit. I won't fight for that wheel. I'll touch my brakes. I'll let this guy in.' At the Tour de France, nobody lets anybody in; nobody hits their brakes. Today Roglic was all the way to the side of the road trying to move up, and he crashed.</p><p>It's just that everyone takes much bigger risks in this race than they do in any other race. And then you combine that with a dangerous parcours, and it's just bad <keyword id="6355005" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="news">news</keyword>.</p><div type="image" title="Team B&amp;B KTM's Cyril Lemoine of France is helped by medical staff after crashing during the first stage of the 108th edition of the Tour." height="1333" width="2000" msid="83939047" hostid="261"></div><p><strong>How is your team, and what do you expect over the next stages?</strong></p><p>We're just trying to keep everyone healthy and safe. For us, the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-tour-de-france-time-trial-2017-7">time trial</a>, two days from now, can't come soon enough. Because once that time trial happens, that'll calm a few nerves down. There will be a couple people who will lose enough time they'll lose the dream. It should, after the time trial, calm down, at least a little bit.</p>

Riders under pressure navigate dodgy roads and careless spectators at crash-marred Tour de France

<ul class="summary-list"><li>A 16-year-old cyclist located his bike using an Apple AirTag. </li><li>However, his father said they became distressed after trying to get the airlines to return it. </li></ul><p>A 16-year-old cyclist who remotely located a $12,000 bike he lost during a flight from Europe said he and his family found frustration trying to get it back.</p><p>Luke Barnett and his son Gray, a cyclist with the EF Pro Cycling team's junior development program, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.cnn.com/travel/article/brussels-airport-lost-bike-airtag/index.html">spoke to CNN</a> about how, after traveling back from Europe — where he raced over the summer — Gray's bike did not return with him.</p><p>However, using an Apple AirTag, the son quickly found his bike in the Brussels Airport, where Gray hopped on a connecting flight. This set off days of speaking to the two airlines he flew with — United and Brussels — who Barnett said were unhelpful with his requests.</p><p>"I was saying, 'I just needed someone to care enough to take 15 minutes to walk over and get the bag,'" Barnett told CNN.</p><p>Frustrated by the lack of progress and working with a 10-day deadline when luggage would be available for pickup, Barnett publicized his story on X. He even filed a complaint with the US Department of Transportation. Still, he told CNN, there was no movement on finding the bike — until he decided to reach out to Brussels Airport.</p><p>That's when the Barnett family told CNN that, after multiple failed attempts, they could finally get through to someone — a woman named Ella Dollinschi, a customer care agent at Brussels Airport. She worked to locate the bike using the Apple AirTag location and sent the cycle on a flight back to Greenville, South Carolina, CNN reported.</p><p>"We worked with Mr. Barnett to reroute his bike to Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport as soon as the other airline gave it to us," United Airlines said in a statement to Insider. "We've apologized to Mr. Barnett for the delay and provided travel credits to use toward a future flight."</p><p>The son finally got his bike back, Barnett said, which he needed to continue training for an "event in Vermont in a couple of weeks."</p><p>"I just needed someone to care, and finally found someone who did," Barnett told CNN.</p><p>Brussels Airlines did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Insider.</p>

A teen who lost his $12,000 bike while flying from Europe found it in an airport with an AirTag, but said neither United nor Brussels Airlines would help him retrieve it

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5d1f7990a17d6c08e102f897-2000/ef tdf2019 jv interview.jpg" border="0" alt="EF TdF2019 JV interview" data-mce-source="Justin Setterfield/Getty Images" /><p class="source"><span>Justin Setterfield/Getty Images</span></p><p class="caption">The US-registered EF Education First cycling team presented ahead of the Tour de France,  in Brussels' Grand Place, July 4, 2019.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li>The top US team at the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/tour-de-france">Tour de France</a> hopes to win the race after running a close second in 2017.</li><li>The EF Education First team boss, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com.au/category/jonathan-vaughters">Jonathan Vaughters</a>, shared a variety of thoughts with Business Insider ahead of the three-week race's start in Brussels.</li><li>He talked about picking the right riders for the Tour team and the relationship between relaxation and results.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul><p>BRUSSELS - The top American team here at the Tour de France, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/ef-education-first">EF Education First</a>, is hoping to win the race with its star rider, the Colombian climber Rigoberto Urán, who finished second in 2017, less than a minute behind the four-time winner Chris Froome of Britain.</p><p>The mastermind behind Urán's campaign, then and now, is <a href="https://twitter.com/Vaughters">Jonathan Vaughters</a>, a Coloradan who raced professionally for years before starting the team known today as EF.</p><p>Three weeks makes for a long race, and Vaughters says that when it comes to any plan he's careful not to get ahead of himself.</p><p>"I'm thinking about how to win the race, but you only really do that in the Tour by thinking about the day in front of you," Vaughters told Business Insider in Brussels this week. "It's not some sort of crazy long-term strategy. It's only about the 24 hours in front of you.</p><p>"First thing is, we get through day one and nobody crashes. Then we get through the team time trial. See how that goes. Then we can start talking about the rest of the race. I don't think there's too much to talk about until after the team time trial."</p><p>And as for all the talk that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tour-de-france-favorites-ranked-2019-7">this year's Tour is wide open</a>, Vaughters paused before saying, "Well, we'll just wait and see how open a race it is after Planche des Belles Filles," the first summit finish, on stage six.</p><p>Vaughters' team, in all its iterations, has been <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-uran-cannondale-drapac-tour-de-france-stage-9-win-2017-7">pro cycling's "Moneyball"</a> outfit since the beginning. To land contenders like Urán he's had to find undervalued riders with untapped potential, ones he can afford to sign.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5d1f781da17d6c408c2077e5-2000/jonathan-vaughters-tour-de-france-brussels-2019.jpg" border="0" alt="Jonathan Vaughters Tour de France Brussels 2019.JPG" data-mce-source="Daniel McMahon/Business Insider" data-link="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/daniel-mcmahon" /><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/daniel-mcmahon">Daniel McMahon/Business Insider</a></span></p><p class="caption">Jonathan Vaughters, CEO of the EF Education First pro cycling team, in Brussels for the start of the Tour de France, July 4, 2019.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Traditionally, his yearly budget has been about 15 million euros, a far cry from the estimated 40 to 50 million euros of Team Ineos, formerly known as Sky.</p><p>All the same, EF has brought its strongest team ever to the Tour. The climbers Tejay van Garderen of the US, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/michael-rusty-woods-runner-cyclist-2017-5">Michael Woods of Canada</a>, and Tanel Kangert of Estonia will help Urán in the mountains, and supporting those riders on the flatter stages will be the New Zealander Tom Scully, the Dutchman Sebastian Langeveld, the Australian Simon Clarke, and the Italian Alberto Bettiol.</p><p>It's a quality group of bike racers who could upset <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tour-de-france-favorites-ranked-2019-7">the top favorites, like the defending champ Geraint Thomas and Egan Bernal</a>, both of Ineos.</p><p>Whereas Thomas raced, and crashed out of, the tune-up Tour of Switzerland, which Bernal won, Urán instead trained solo at altitude in Colombia.</p><p>Some bosses might've been nervous about their best rider doing that, but Vaughters insists there's trust in Urán to show up at the world's greatest race at his best.</p><p>"We keep Rigo at altitude for a longer period - as tight as we can till the start of the Tour," Vaughters said. "And there's a lot of trust. But we have a lot of training data and we look at his files."</p><p>Vaughters said he liked Urán's chances, that he's looking good.</p><p>"It'll be a competitive race one way or the other," he added. Nonetheless, he said that he still thought Bernal was the strongest rider at this Tour and that Ineos was the favorite.</p><p>"This is definitely the strongest team we've ever brought to the Tour, but I don't think it's bringing expectations, because the pressure is clearly off of our team going into the race," Vaughters said.</p><p>"We aren't the race favorite, so that's actually a really nice position to be in, quite frankly. Internally we have a lot of confidence, but we don't necessarily have to shoulder that."</p><p>The EF team is known for its chill vibe and cast of characters. The riders are intelligent, they share heady books, and they have engaging conversations at dinner together.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5d1f6717a17d6c3bf209f373-2000/rigoberto uran tdf2019 brussels business insider.jpg" border="0" alt="Rigoberto Uran TdF2019 Brussels Business Insider.JPG" data-mce-source="Daniel McMahon/Business Insider" data-link="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/daniel-mcmahon" /><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/daniel-mcmahon">Daniel McMahon/Business Insider</a></span></p><p class="caption">Colombian Rigoberto Urán, 32, is quietly hoping to improve on his second place in the 2017 Tour de France, in Brussels on Friday, July 5, 2019.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>"It definitely gives us an advantage," Vaughters said. "I also think it gives it a recruiting advantage, because other riders see that and they think, 'Man, I wish I were in that atmosphere.'"</p><p>But can chill win big races?</p><p>"It's amazing, but I think the more relaxed you are the better the result," he said.</p><p>"OK, there would come a point where a rider might say, 'Well, I guess I could just put on 30 pounds.' But that hasn't been a problem. If anything, I think most of our riders overtrain rather than undertrain."</p><p>The mood around the team is relaxed, but it's not to be misconstrued as sloppy or unprofessional. Everyone knows their job, from the riders to the staff. There's accountability.</p><p>And then there are some massive EF wins, like this spring when <a href="https://www.efprocycling.com/bettiol-takes-first-pro-win-at-tour-of-flanders/">Bettiol won one of the biggest races of the year, the Tour of Flanders</a>.</p><p>Vaughters broke down how he put together this Tour team.</p><p>"There are some objective-analysis points and then there are a lot of subjective-analysis points," he told Business Insider. "You first pick what the objectives are for the race, then you pick the riders who are most adapted in meeting those objectives, then you pick the riders who are most capable in supporting those riders in achieving those objectives.</p><p>"Then there are the sociological components to it, as well in how you put a group together. So it's not necessarily the top eight riders on a team but the eight riders who will function best in this particular race."</p><p><a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/602426/one-way-ticket-by-jonathan-vaughters/">Vaughters, who just wrote his first book</a>, a look back at his life and career as a bike racer turned CEO of bike racers, is noticeably more relaxed these days. After being on the brink of losing his team for lack of sponsorship two years ago, he has a new owner and long-term sponsor in <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tour-de-france-ef-education-first-edward-hult-interview-2018-7">EF, a privately owned company that calls itself "the world leader in international education."</a></p><p>"It's a lot calmer for me now," Vaughters said while sipping a glass of red - he is an oenophile - a day before his team's biggest event of the year kicked off. "I'm far more focused on sports-science issues and rider recruitment, stuff that's fun for me, as opposed to stuff that is, you know - I'm not sweating the big stuff anymore, let's put it that way."</p><p>The team is getting the details right that it wasn't before, he added, "little things."</p><p>Pushed to give an example, Vaughters said it's "competitive-advantage stuff."</p><p>"We've just put a lot more time into research that we weren't doing," he said. "Most it is aerodynamics-based research. We just didn't have the time or the money to do it before.</p><p>"It's now just about concentrating on the race."</p>      <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/every-total-solar-eclipse-until-2040-video-2017-8">An animated map shows every total solar eclipse around the world until 2040</a></h3>        <div>            <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/0KkIFiDj-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script>        </div>    </div>

The boss of America's top Tour de France team is looking 24 hours ahead, and no further, as the world's greatest race gets underway in Brussels

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5b55ef127d4dc734008b45a3-2000/ef education first drapac cannondale tour de france hult interview.jpg" border="0" alt="EF Education First Drapac Cannondale Tour de France Hult interview" data-mce-source="AP Photo/Christophe Ena" /><p class="source"><span>AP Photo/Christophe Ena</span></p><p class="caption">EF <keyword id="6355445" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="education">Education</keyword> First-Drapac p/b Cannondale racing at the 2018 Tour de France.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>LES HERBIERS, France - Last August <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cannondale-drapac-cycling-team-needs-millions-to-avoid-shutdown-2017-8">we reported</a> that one of the US's top pro cycling teams was in danger of folding unless it came up with $7 million within a week, which was kind of crazy considering <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rigoberto-uran-colombian-cyclng-violence-tour-de-france-2017-7">its star rider</a> had just <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/inside-uran-cannondale-drapac-tour-de-france-stage-9-win-2017-7">finished second</a> in the world's preeminent bicycle race. It wasn't fake news, though: Without the extra dough, team boss <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/jonathan-vaughters">Jonathan Vaughters</a> said, it really would've shut down.</p><p>But as The Wall Street Journal reported in early September, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/cyclings-green-team-lands-saving-green-1504966957" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the green came</a>, and with it not just a big new sponsor but a new owner, one that many American cycling fans had never heard of: <a href="https://www.ef.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">EF Education First</a>.</p><p>EF is a privately owned company that calls itself "<a href="https://www.ef.edu/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">the world leader in international education</a>." It was founded in 1965, in Lund, Sweden, and today it has 580 schools and offices in 52 countries. Think of it as the biggest education-travel company you've never heard of until now.</p><p>Recently at the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/tour-de-france">Tour de France</a>, CEO Edward Hult spoke with Business Insider about why EF bought a cycling team, why he's not losing sleep over the sport's rampant-doping past, and why a YouTube video can only show you so much about the world.</p><p><em>Interview condensed and edited for clarity.</em></p><p><strong>Daniel McMahon:</strong> We're sitting here at the Tour, which is viewed by hundreds of thousands on the roadside and millions more on TV worldwide. This year your company, EF, not only took on title sponsorship of the Cannondale-Drapac team but bought the naming rights. Yet before that I'd never heard of EF, as I presume was the case for many Americans. In your words, what is EF Education First?</p><p><strong>Edward Hult:</strong> We're experiential education. We're about teaching people different cultures and getting people exposure to different beliefs and different ways of looking at things. We do that through language, we do that through travel, and we do it through cultural-exchange programs, and even some academic programs. We try to incorporate an educational component and a cultural-education component, so a travel component that has some sort of cultural exchange to it, as well as education. Education can be language training, it can be about the cultures, or it can be formal degree programs.</p><p><strong>McMahon:</strong> So it's like curated travel for people who want to learn a language.</p><p><strong>Hult:</strong> Yes, it's mostly curated. We try to make it experiential because the last thing we want to do is bring people abroad and stand there and lecture at them. You can take a lecture anywhere. So it's really like, let's get them out there, let's make it a safe environment, but get them to experience the countries and the places they go to.</p><p><strong>McMahon:</strong> So if I wanted to travel in, say, Asia and learn a language there, can I do it short term and long term?</p><p><strong>Hult:</strong> Yes. You can enroll for a week; you can enroll for a year. You can travel, and in some places we have local schools. We encourage you, if you can, to take the travel ones, because it's always better to learn a language immersed in it, I believe. We also have online English training.</p><p><strong>McMahon:</strong> How did the company get started?</p><p><strong>Hult:</strong> The very first product we had was taking mainly high-school kids from Sweden during their summer break to study English in the UK. That was EF day one. And that really came about because of my father. I'm dyslexic, and he's very dyslexic. He struggled in school, and then he worked as a mail-delivery boy at a bank in the UK for a summer, and that's where his English really got better. And he was like, "Wow, it was so much easier learning English that way."</p><p><strong>McMahon:</strong> So what are some of EF's most popular programs today?</p><p><strong>Hult:</strong> It depends on where you are in the world. You can go to Asia, as you said, for instance, where we have a lot of local language schools. In Europe it's mainly language travel, so you travel to the country and study. And in North America it's mainly what we call some of our tours business, which is you go on a tour and we show you part of the world for a week or two. And then we've got a high-school program. We're associated with the Hult International Business School. And then we've got the high-school exchange and the au pair program.</p><p>So it really depends on where you are and what you're looking for, but if you take the tours business - what I operationally oversee day to day - our most popular tours are London, Paris, and Rome, and you do that for 11 days. For many of our travelers, they've never been outside of their own town before, so for them it's huge.</p><p>You know, a couple of years ago I was on a tour, and London was the first day. Everyone arrived, and it was five different groups from five parts of the US, small towns of just a few thousand people, and almost none of them had been outside their town before. So for them to come to London and go on a subway and see all the people - and when we got to Paris they had gained confidence, and the students were running around: "We want to go there!" "We want to see that!" And you see it over the 11 days how it transforms the kids and their confidence level and just their understanding of things.</p><p><strong>McMahon:</strong> Who are your competitors?</p><p><strong>Hult:</strong> EF in itself as a global company doesn't really have a direct competitor, but within the products there are tons of competitors. If you take <a href="https://www.goaheadtours.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">EF Go Ahead Tours</a>, it has a lot of competitors - Trafalgar, for example. Then there's a lot of local language training in different countries.</p><p>But generally I think competition is healthy. I'm quite competitive, so it makes it kind of fun. And if companies didn't have competitors you'd all get fat and lazy, and the consumer would end up on the losing side even more, because then you have higher costs and poor service, where if you have competitors you keep your products and your services top notch, and that's what you should be providing. And that's how we're going to have any sort of impact - not through crappy services. You're going to have an impact by having great services.</p><p><strong>McMahon:</strong> So why buy a pro cycling team?</p><p><strong>Hult:</strong> Well, for one, cycling is awesome. But it really sort of started a couple of years ago, with me and my oldest brother, who works in the London office.</p><p>EF has generally been bad at PR and brand awareness. We grew up being really strong at sales, and sales have been the driver of how we built EF from the ground. We've done very little <keyword id="6354839" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="marketing">marketing</keyword> and almost no PR and no branding. So as we keep growing, we keep hearing we're the best-kept secret and that no one knows who we are, though we're around the world. And so me and my brother started talking about it. "Should we try to do a global sort of brand campaign?" And so we started looking into it because we thought it might be worth a try, to see if we could become a little bit more known for everything we do.</p><p>So we started looking into media agencies. But if you want to do a global brand campaign, one, it's super expensive, and, two, there are a lot of really good media agencies that specialize within just one or a few countries. We were struggling to find ones that were really good globally. And while we were looking we heard about this cycling team that was about to fold. At first we didn't think twice about it.</p><p>The thing is, I'm very passionate about cycling, but I don't follow pro cycling. I love riding a bike - I do amateur events. But if you asked me who all the pro riders were before we got involved, I wouldn't have been able to tell you anyone. But we started looking more closely, and it kind of hit us that there's this group of people from diverse countries and diverse backgrounds who are all coming together, working hard together for a common goal on a global stage. And we were thinking that that, in itself, is a little of what EF is all about too. It's about bringing different cultures together, solving problems, world issues.</p><p>A lot of our programs will bring different cultures together to look at problems and get the idea generation you get from different cultures when they share their backgrounds and how to approach it. It's pretty cool. And so here is this pro cycling team that's doing that, and they're being seen and they're being viewed by the world. And while I do understand it's a cycling-fan-based world, cycling is also a really popular sport, especially in Europe, but even more so in other countries.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5b55dc779b191a2e008b45b0-1616/edward hult ef education first tour de france.jpg" border="0" alt="Edward Hult EF Education First Tour de France.JPG" data-mce-source="Courtesy of EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale" data-link="https://www.ef.edu/" /><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.ef.edu/">Courtesy of EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale</a></span></p><p class="caption">Edward Hult, CEO of EF Education First North America, with Jonathan Geran, director of sports marketing at Cannondale, at the 2018 Tour.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>And so we're like, "Could this be our branding campaign? Instead of a media agency, could we actually use this cycling team? Because they're kind of representing what EF is trying to do." And so we started looking more into it. We also looked at the current sponsors of the team, and we realized, for instance, that it was Drapac, which emphasizes education for the riders, and EF is all about education. There was [the helmet maker] POC, which is all about safety, and Cannondale, which prides itself on being innovative. Our whole big thing is getting out there to the masses. We felt if we do this right, this could actually be really cool.</p><p>So not only was this marketing thing going on, there was this whole cycling spirit that we believe in, with bringing all these different cultures together, working together. And it's a really nice way to unite staff around the globe, to cheer on this team and make them be proud of this team.</p><p><strong>McMahon:</strong> And so even though cycling is cleaner today than it has been in the past, given its history of rampant doping, did you have concerns about the sport's integrity?</p><p><strong>Hult:</strong> Yes, of course. Natural hesitations there. We clearly had zero tolerance for this, but one of the things that was attractive was Jonathan Vaughters' stance against this too. I think the way he's sort of spearheaded a lot of the internal stuff within cycling - trying to help clean it up - was quite inspirational. And it felt right; it felt like he's 100% on board that there's zero tolerance. And so we feel safe with him at the helm of the day-to-day operations. But yeah, we don't want to be involved in any of the dirty stuff.</p><p>Also, it gets easier to get sucked into that if everything is about winning. And of course winning is great, and it's a big plus, but for us that's really not the main objective. We see it as a big added bonus. But really it's about how do we get the message out there that these different people from different nationalities are coming together, working together, and then how can we get them involved in community events and cycling and things like that, rather than "We have to win at all costs." And of course we want to try to win - winning is great - but that's not the end-all, be-all for us by any means.</p><p><strong>McMahon:</strong> What does EF's growth look like?</p><p><strong>Hult:</strong> What we usually say is that we double about every five years sort of any way you measure it. There've been years we've taken big hits - 9/11 was an example of that. There was the oil crisis in the '70s, before my time, and that was a big hit as well. So then you sort of reset, and you keep building.</p><p><strong>McMahon:</strong> How sensitive is EF's business to the global political climate, with things like Brexit and the current administration in the US?</p><p><strong>Hult:</strong> It's not as sensitive as people think. People still want to learn. With technology you're somehow interacting on a global scale today even if you're not meaning to. We've found that people are still interested in learning about different cultures. They want to know. They want to get out there and see. Not 100% of the population, absolutely not, but a large, large part. Education will never go away. People are still going to need face-to-face stuff, to actually be able to talk to someone. But people are going to want to travel. They're going to want to see these cultures and meet different people and learn about how they see the world.</p><p><strong>McMahon:</strong> What's the big thing you'd like people to know about EF?</p><p><strong>Hult:</strong> If you're interested in learning something new about any culture or any people, or the history or arts, and you want to do it in an experiential way, that's what we provide - rather than reading about it or seeing it in a YouTube video. I love YouTube, but a video can only show so much. And not really until you're immersed within a situation can you have your biases and your truth challenged, where you feel you're challenging your own truths yourself, because you're learning and hearing something.</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/england-soocer-fans-explain-its-coming-home-gareth-southgate-three-lions-memes-2018-7">'It's coming home': England fans explain the emotional rallying cry of the World Cup</a></h3>        <div>            <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/FO4iYZWr-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script>        </div>    </div>

The CEO of an 'experiential education' company explains why he bought one of America's top Tour de France teams and why a YouTube video will never replace real travel

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5d249539a17d6c01fd659c12-1694/michael woods tour de france cyclist runner.png" border="0" alt="Michael Woods Tour de France cyclist runner" data-mce-source="Gruber Images" data-link="https://www.gruberimages.pro/" /><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.gruberimages.pro/">Gruber Images</a></span></p><p class="caption">The Canadian Michael Woods of the EF Education First team, in pink, racing in the Tour de France in July.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li>The Canadian pro cyclist <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/michael-rusty-woods-runner-cyclist-2017-5">Michael Woods</a> is racing in his first <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/tour-de-france">Tour de France</a> with the US-based team <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/ef-education-first">EF Education First</a>. At 32, he is one of the oldest neo-pros to ever take part in the world's greatest race.</li><li>Fourteen years ago he ran a sub-four-minute mile, but his running career was short-lived, partly because of injury. He eventually turned to cycling, a sport in which he's risen to the highest level.</li><li>Woods spoke with Business Insider at the Tour, telling us about what makes the race unique, runner's high versus cyclist's high, and why he still runs, even though he pedals 30 hours a week.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul><p>NANCY, France - In a way, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/michael-rusty-woods-runner-cyclist-2017-5">Michael Woods' story</a> is unremarkable. Runner injures self, takes up cycling. But the Canadian's story is something else.</p><p>At 18, he ran a mile in 3 minutes, 57.48 seconds (still a record for a Canadian on Canadian soil, as far as we can tell), but he soon had to quit the sport because of injury. He later found himself working in a shoe store, where he said he was miserable.</p><p>Years later he started racing his bike. And 14 years after running that sub-four-minute mile, he's now competing in the Tour de France. At 32, he's doing it as one of the oldest neo-pros the sport has ever seen.</p><p>Woods is in 11th place overall at the Tour. He was a protagonist on stage three, riding aggressively at the front. His hope is to win a stage when the race hits the mountains, but his main objective is to support his team leader, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rigoberto-uran-colombian-cyclng-violence-tour-de-france-2017-7">Rigoberto Urán</a>, the runner-up in the 2017 Tour, who's in 13th place.</p><p>We caught up with Woods at the start of the Tour.</p><p><strong>Daniel McMahon:</strong> How is runner's high different from cyclist's high?</p><p><strong>Michael Woods:</strong> A runner's high is certainly different. It's this full-body high. You finish a run and it's more invigorating. You finish your morning run and you feel like, "I'm ready to take on the day." Often you're in a better mood, more euphoric, whereas in cycling it's much longer and much more taxing mentally.</p><p>I found going for a run was cathartic because you're just releasing, and unless you're doing a full-gas race it's not mentally super difficult, whereas cycling is so mentally challenging. Even if you're doing a long training ride, it's challenging.</p><p>Then, once you finish, there's a high and there's this sensation. There's this endorphin rush. You feel really good, but it's more calm. It's like, this calmness. Once I finish a ride, I have no problem just sitting down and doing nothing. I just want to lie on the couch. It's the opposite of running, where I want to do things, I want to go and check out a new movie or hang out with friends. Instead, after a ride, if someone wants me to do something, it's like pulling teeth. I want to stay home and I complain. If my wife wants to go meet with some friends, I pull up every excuse in the book to try to not go.</p><p>If you go for a five-hour ride, you finish and you're happy, you've accomplished something, and you're getting at that high, but you don't want to do anything else.</p><p><strong>McMahon:</strong> Like a serene afterglow. You just want to have a good beer or a nice meal.</p><p><strong>Woods:</strong> Exactly. It also has to do with the higher impact of running. You're getting more of an endorphin rush, maybe because you're trying to heal the rest of your body, whereas on the bike you're not getting that impact.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/59265955621e6c1e048b48a6-604/mike rusty woods runner cyclist.jpg" border="0" alt="Mike Rusty Woods runner cyclist" data-mce-source="Courtesy of Michael Woods" data-link="https://www.instagram.com/p/5xY3reMS5L/" /><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/5xY3reMS5L/">Courtesy of Michael Woods</a></span></p><p class="caption">The 2005 Pan American junior championships in Ontario.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p><strong>McMahon:</strong> Do you still run?</p><p><strong>Woods:</strong> Yeah, I run with my wife. And now I've started picking it up a bit more, trying to do it once or twice a week in season. When you finish a three-week race, you're a better bike racer but a worse human being. Over this Tour I'm probably going to walk 5 kilometers over the course of the month - that's it. And that's not healthy. That's not healthy from an impact-adaptation perspective. Humans are meant to walk - they're meant to move around.</p><p>The bike is really bad if you're a pro cyclist. There are quite a few incidents of low bone density, arthritis, all that kind of stuff, and just incorporating a bit of running into my regime makes me a healthier person. I also find it's made me more robust on the bike.</p><p>When I'm done cycling, I want to get back into running because it's so much easier to stay fit - a way better and bigger bang for your buck. I'm not going to be a professional athlete for the rest of my life. I want to have kids. I want to have a family. There are going to be so many things pulling at me for time. The bike's terrible for that. Going for a 30-minute-to-an-hour run, you get great bang for your buck, whereas a 30-minute-to-an-hour ride you're doing nothing.</p><p><strong>McMahon:</strong> What's a run look like now with the season in full swing?</p><p><strong>Woods:</strong> Just 10 to 15 minutes, an easy jog before doing some core work. Nothing crazy, because I'm doing 30-hour training weeks on the bike.</p><p><strong>McMahon:</strong> At 32, you're one of the oldest neo-pros in pro cycling, and you're doing your first Tour de France.</p><p><strong>Woods:</strong> I'm really happy that I'm doing my first Tour at this age, too. If I were 21, it'd be lost on me - I'd be overwhelmed by all the interviews. I might be more excited, but I'm really excited right now, and as you get older I feel like there are fewer things you get really excited about.</p><p>So to have this at 32, and at this level, I feel like I'm going to my first sleepover when I was 5, just that level of childish excitement. And because I'm older, I'm really enjoying the moment that I'm in. Because at 32, this could conceivably be my last tour. Anything can happen. I'm not young.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5d249942a17d6c03c53d3362-2000/tour de france michael woods cyclist-runner interview.jpg" border="0" alt="Tour de France Michael Woods cyclist runner interview" data-mce-source="AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos" /><p class="source"><span>AP Photo/Alvaro Barrientos</span></p><p class="caption">Woods won a stage of the Vuelta a España in 2018.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p><strong>McMahon:</strong> What makes the Tour unique?</p><p><strong>Woods:</strong> It's the only bike race I knew of as a noncyclist. It's the only bike race I followed as a noncyclist. And I'm feeling that significance now. It's the only thing that transcends cycling. It's the only part of the sport that reaches outside the sphere of people inside the sport. So that extra layer of attention, that extra layer of messages from friends and family, it's overwhelming, and I'm really appreciating that and feel really lucky to be doing it.</p><p><strong>McMahon:</strong> What 's top of mind for you in this opening week of the Tour?</p><p><strong>Woods:</strong> First thing is to just to try and stay safe. I really want to finish this thing. I want to do well; I want to have success.</p><p>But I have to take a good step back and realize the first week is so dangerous, that for me to have success, for me to contribute to the team's success, I have to stay safe. And because of all of this excitement, because of all of this energy, it's going to be a difficult thing to do.</p><p>Everybody wants to do so well at the Tour because of that extra layer of attention, that even the most seasoned veterans do stuff that is outside what they normally do, and that can result in chaos. And because of that, it makes it a really uncontrollable thing. I have to keep my wits about me and keep my head.</p>

Canadian in Tour de France who ran a sub-4 mile says he still runs because doing nothing but pedaling for 3 weeks makes you 'a better bike racer but a worse human' physically

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5d3483258d6642360b695232-1310/tour-de-france-team-dream-local-rider.jpg" border="0" alt="Tour de France team dream local rider" data-mce-source="Daniel McMahon/Business Insider" data-link="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/daniel-mcmahon" /></div></div></div></p><p>BELGIUM - He rode out of nowhere.</p><p>Two seconds after we pulled out of the hotel parking lot he zipped past our follow car and tucked into the slipstream of the eight riders in front of us.</p><p>He looked like a local, 18 maybe, his dark-blue kit contrasting with the pros' pink jerseys, an intruder jumping in with a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/tour-de-france">Tour de France</a> team on its private training ride. He must've been lurking around the hotel, a kind of two-wheeling paparazzo looking for a free ride.</p><p>It was the day before the start of the three-week race, on the outskirts of Brussels, and watching our mysterious pedaler I soon realized we had something in common. Yet instead of crashing a training ride, I sat in the back seat of the team car, a fly on the wall reporting on the inner workings of a top US Tour team, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/ef-education-first">EF Education First</a>.</p><p>We both wanted the same thing really, to be in the Tour. And there we were, in it, or nearly, not as competitors but as participant observers, at least for a spell.</p><p>The plan called for an easy coffee ride, to keep the riders' legs open and make any last adjustments to the bikes. And, quietly, to shake out any nerves on the eve of the greatest race.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5d348380a13c95354451c7b4-2000/tour-de-france-team-ride-with-local-fan.jpg" border="0" alt="Tour de France team ride with local fan" data-mce-source="Daniel McMahon/Business Insider" data-link="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/daniel-mcmahon" /></div></div></div></p><p>I wondered what Paul and Raj, the driver and the mechanic, were thinking of the interloper. It is verboten to get so close to the riders on these rides, lest an overzealous amateur take one of them down by braking a second too late or having the dreaded "touch of wheels."</p><p>I'd seen many a director roll up and politely but firmly tell enthusiasts to drop back. This was one of the few times I'd seen someone allowed to ride, in my half-dozen Tours anyway. And it's part of what makes cycling unique. It's not every day you can just jump into an NBA shootaround or warm up on the pitch with Messi and Co.</p><p>Paul was all right with the kid, who <a href="https://twitter.com/cyclingreporter/status/1147079115817803776">sat spinning his pedals behind the last two riders</a>. Paul observed that he looked like a racer, which I took as code for "safe enough." That was confirmed when I saw the team leader, the Colombian climber <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/rigoberto-uran">Rigoberto Urán</a>, the runner-up in the 2017 Tour, chatting with the kid as they rolled along.</p><p>It's kind of refreshing, since so much of this race, the world's largest annual sporting event, is so tightly controlled you can't walk 50 feet without having the barcode on your credential scanned. There are multiple levels of access. Security checks you when you enter places and again when you leave them.</p><p>The team plus one wended their way down side roads and bike paths, through suburbs and villages, taking in the sunshine and the breeze, and we followed, keeping an eye on the GPS to ensure we didn't miss a turn, and to see to it that the kid didn't push his luck.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5d348a82a13c9535bb161a64-2000/tour-de-france-ef-team-with-local-rider.jpg" border="0" alt="Tour de France EF team with local rider" data-mce-source="Daniel McMahon/Business Insider" data-link="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/daniel-mcmahon" /></div></div></div></p><p>The riders never went hard, and the kid seemed to be savoring each pedal stroke, judging by the look on his face, which I caught glimpses of when we rounded a corner or stopped at a light.</p><p>This lasted for the better part of an hour, till we reached the coffee shop, where the riders commanded a table and the kid hung back on the sidewalk.</p><p>His name was Kiano Brusseleers, which he told me almost as if he'd been caught cheating. He was from the nearby area of Zaventem.</p><p>He was, in fact, 18, and had been racing bikes for years. He'd recently started competing in the under-23 ranks, and he'd gotten word the team was staying at the Holiday Inn by the airport.</p><p>It was the first time he'd ridden with a Tour team, and, perhaps too shy to approach the riders, he asked whether I would thank them for letting him join their ride.</p><p>"Do you want to go pro?" I asked.</p><p>"Yes, but the chance to be pro will be very small," he said. "But I've got to try. If you don't try, you will not be a pro rider." He told me he'd already won a race.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5d34842b8813a236bf10fd63-1577/kiano-brusseleers-belgian-cyclist.jpg" border="0" alt="Kiano Brusseleers Belgian cyclist" data-mce-source="Daniel McMahon/Business Insider" data-link="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/daniel-mcmahon" /></div></div></div></p><p>I was tempted to ask him what Urán had said to him.</p><p>"So would you say this is the best day of your life?" I said half-jokingly.</p><p>"Yes," he said matter-of-factly, glancing a last time at the riders as he threw a leg over his bike. "A very nice day."</p><p>He gave me his email, asking if I could send him a photo of him riding with the team.</p><p>He smiled, clipped into his pedals, and rode away.</p>

Reporter's notebook: Chasing riders and a dream at the Tour de France

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5b57298732763832008b45f4-2000/tour de france sees wider tires lower pressure.jpg" border="0" alt="Tour de France sees wider tires lower pressure" data-mce-source="Daniel McMahon/Business Insider" data-link="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/daniel-mcmahon" /><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/daniel-mcmahon">Daniel McMahon/Business Insider</a></span></p><p class="caption">To go faster, Tour de France teams are opting for wider tires and lower pressure.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>DREUX, France - There's no shortage of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tour-de-france-tech-hacks-2016-7">tech talk</a> when the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/category/tour-de-france">Tour de France</a> rolls around, and it invariably has something to do with <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/fastest-tour-de-france-bike-phinney-cannondale-systemsix-2018-7">hyper-aero frames</a>, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/holiday-gifts-cyclists-2017-11#zipp-303-firecrests-4">ultralight wheels</a>, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/osymetric-chainrings-froome-bike-tour-de-france-2016-7">nonround chainrings</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2017/jul/03/vortex-suits-team-sky-tour-de-france-marginal-gain" target="_blank" rel="noopener">slippery apparel,</a> and even <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/ceramicspeed-chain-fastest-tour-de-france-2016-7">powdered chains</a>. Teams will try <a href="https://www.cyclingweekly.com/news/racing/lotto-soudal-investigation-uci-using-special-aerodynamic-gel-criterium-du-dauphine-382396" target="_blank" rel="noopener">just about anything</a> to go faster. So it's refreshing to see a more analog innovation taking hold in the world's preeminent bicycle race: wider tires and lower tire pressure.</p><p>As we wrote in a recent review of one <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/riding-tour-de-france-bike-specialized-venge-review-photos-details-2018-6#-16">Tour-worthy bike</a>, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2pIHm40Amx0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">there's been</a> a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/riding-tour-de-france-bike-specialized-venge-review-photos-details-2018-6#-16" rel="noopener">trend toward riding wider tires with lower pressure</a>, and for good reason: It's essentially <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89KEevSRcGw" target="_blank" rel="noopener">faster</a> and more comfortable in non-lab, real-world conditions. That's been backed by an increasing number of research studies, including a <a href="http://www.velonews.com/2014/12/bikes-and-tech/resistance-futile-tire-pressure-width-affect-rolling-resistance_355085">report by VeloNews</a>. That flies in the face of conventional wisdom that said to go fast you need narrower tires with higher pressure. Think rock-hard, 22mm tubulars.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5b44b66170e2911c008b4f5b-2000/vittoria-corsa-tubular-tires-tdf-bmc.jpg" border="0" alt="Vittoria Corsa tubular tires TdF BMC" data-mce-source="Daniel McMahon/Business Insider" data-link="http://www.businessinsider.com/author/daniel-mcmahon" /><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/author/daniel-mcmahon">Daniel McMahon/Business Insider</a></span></p><p class="caption">The tire width of choice for Greg Van Avermaet, the reigning Olympic champion and leader of the Tour de France for several stages, has been 26mm versus the traditional 23mm.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>Last week at the Tour, Business Insider spoke with <a href="https://pelotonmagazine.com/interviews/stories-wrenchs-war-room-mechanic-geoff-brown/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Geoff Brown</a>, the head mechanic of the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/ef-education-first-drapac-p-b-cannondale">EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale</a> team. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/20/world/canada/inside-the-great-traveling-circus-of-the-tour-de-france-the-canada-letter.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">This is Brown's 21st Tour</a>, so he's seen his share of trends. (He used to wrench for one <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/where-are-they-now-lance-armstrong-tour-de-france-teammates-2015-6">Lance Armstrong</a>.)</p><p>We asked Brown about the trend to embrace wider tires and lower tire pressure, something that once seemed counterintuitive in pro cycling but has become a standard of sorts <a href="https://www.bikeradar.com/us/road/gear/article/tires-of-the-tour-de-france-50337/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">among the very top teams</a>.</p><p>"It depends on the road surface, but 10 years ago the standard was 23mm tires at 8 or 8.5 bar, or 115, 120 psi," Brown said. "And now it's 25mm for regular road racing and 7 to 7.5 bar for front and rear, so a little less than 100 to 110 max on the bikes." So what's the deal?</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5b577e813276382b008b462d-2000/geoff brown mechanic tour de france cycling.jpg" border="0" alt="Geoff Brown mechanic Tour de France cycling" data-mce-source="Daniel McMahon/Business Insider" data-link="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/daniel-mcmahon" /><p class="source"><span><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/daniel-mcmahon">Daniel McMahon/Business Insider</a></span></p><p class="caption">Geoff Brown, head mechanic of EF Education First-Drapac p/b Cannondale.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>"There seems to be a lot more real science behind cycling now," Brown explained. "A lower tire pressure with more surface contact translates to lower rolling resistance, which is one of the main factors. And the bikes are much stiffer these days, with the carbon-fiber frames, especially the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cannondale-system-six-fastest-bike-tour-de-france-2018-6">aero frames</a>, and the aero rims - like when you're running like a 50mm-section rim, which is quite deep - all that stuff is stiff, so the lower pressure helps provide more comfort for the rider."</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5b4a7f91f29aa41b008b4a4e-2000/vittoria corsa control tubular tires 30.jpg" border="0" alt="Vittoria Corsa Control tubular tires 30" data-mce-source="Daniel McMahon/Business Insider" data-link="http://www.businessinsider.com/author/daniel-mcmahon" /><p class="source"><span><a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/author/daniel-mcmahon">Daniel McMahon/Business Insider</a></span></p><p class="caption">Taylor Phinney's tires for the Roubaix stage of the 2018 Tour ran a whopping 30mm wide - especially plump for the cobbled farm roads of northern France.</p></div><p></p></div></div></p><p>For what it's worth, we didn't see any 23mm tires at the Tour this year - we did look at <em>a lot</em> of tires - though of course we may have just missed them. By far the most common widths were 25mm and 26mm. And while it's difficult to compare Tour speeds based on tire width and pressure, the growing research and the massive <a href="https://www.bikeradar.com/us/road/gear/article/tires-of-the-tour-de-france-50337/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">push across teams</a> to wider tires and lower pressure speak volumes.</p><p>Could we see road tires at the Tour as wide as 27mm or 28mm anytime soon?</p><p>"Things are moving along quite quickly here in our sport," Brown said. "The <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/history-made-tour-de-france-disc-brakes-2017-7">disc-brake thing has gained real momentum</a>, so on those frames you can certainly run wider tires because there's the clearance for it. I could see it evolving to 26mm or 27 mm as the standard road-racing tire, sure. Why not."</p><p>Even bigger riders - like the 6-foot-5, 187-pound <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/taylor-phinney">Taylor Phinney</a> - run tire pressure as low as the lighter, more compact climbers, such as <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rigoberto-uran-colombian-cyclng-violence-tour-de-france-2017-7">Rigoberto Urán</a>.</p><p>"As far as pressure goes, they all stay the same because it's still a team sport, and if Phinney is riding alongside Rigo and he gets a flat, he'll need a new wheel quickly," Brown said. "Everything is sort of centered around what the leader uses, so if the leader has 7 in his wheels, everyone has to have 7 in their wheels."</p>    <div class="margin-top">        <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="http://www.businessinsider.com/world-cup-referee-fifa-official-soccer-2018-7">What it takes to be a World Cup referee</a></h3>        <div>            <iframe class="bijwplayerclass" data-player="jwplayer" src="https://content.jwplatform.com/players/C6mS5Lux-CEZHWCBG.html" width="100%" height="100%" frameborder="0" scrolling="auto" style="margin:0px;" allowfullscreen=""></iframe><script>function receiveMessage(event){ console.log(event.data.fullscreen); Android.fullscreen(event.data.fullscreen); }window.addEventListener("message", receiveMessage, false);</script>        </div>    </div>

An incredibly simple but revolutionary change at the Tour de France is being embraced by the world's fastest cyclists

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5d28de82a17d6c66b97c8098-2000/van garderen crashes out of tour de france.jpg" border="0" alt="Van Garderen crashes out of Tour de France" data-mce-source="AP Photo/Thibault Camus" data-mce-caption="Tejay Van Garderen of the U.S. is treated by a medic after he crashed during the seventh stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 230 kilometers (142,9 miles) with start in Belfort and finish in Chalon sur Saone, France, Friday, July 12, 2019." /></div></div></div></p><ul class="summary-list"><li>Crashing is part of bike racing, especially at the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/tour-de-france">Tour de France</a>, but no two crashes or injuries are the same, which can complicate matters when deciding whether it's safe for a rider to continue.</li><li>The rider's safety must be considered but so too should that of the other riders. Those considerations became a focus of the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/ef-education-first">EF Education First team</a> after the highest-placed US cyclist, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/tejay-van-garderen">Tejay van Garderen</a>, crashed Friday.</li><li>Early on stage seven he broke his thumb and suffered multiple cuts to his face and body, and still he went on to complete the 143-mile stage. Yet his Tour was in doubt.</li><li style="text-align: left;">EF's doctor spoke with Business Insider about the how the team arrived at a decision late Friday that led to Van Garderen's withdrawal from the race.</li><li><a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/?hprecirc-bullet">Visit Business Insider's homepage for more stories</a>.</li></ul><p>CHALON-SUR-SAONE, France - Crashing is part of the Tour de France, but fortunately most of the time riders pick themselves up and continue riding. Yet even when they do, it's not always clear they should take the start the next day.</p><p>How do teams decide whether it's safe for a rider to continue?</p><p>Business Insider spoke with <a href="https://www.podiumsportsmed.com/kevin-sprouse">Kevin Sprouse</a>, the doctor for the US-based EF Education First team, after Tejay van Garderen, the highest-placed American, crashed hard on Friday's stage seven, broke his thumb, suffered multiple cuts to his face and body, and still crossed the finish line, all before deciding not to continue racing the next day.</p><p><strong>Daniel McMahon:</strong> We know <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/van-garderen-out-tour-de-france-broken-thumb-2019-7">Van Garderen crashed hard early on stage seven</a> after hitting a traffic median but eventually got up and managed to finish the stage - no small feat since it was the longest of the Tour at 143 miles. What care did he receive?</p><p><strong>Kevin Sprouse:</strong> Tejay visited the race doctor's car a couple of times after his crash, mainly for pain meds, like Tylenol, and to make sure there was no concussion or other obvious things. I will say that you probably get varying capabilities by race doctors at races, but at the Tour they're fantastic. They've been doing it for a while, and I'm experienced in dealing with them.</p><p>They assess for his memory of events surrounding the crash, something we've also trained our staff in, in terms of the basics. Nothing medical per se, but general things to look at, like asking what stage we're in, what date it is, maybe the location of the race - although sometimes I couldn't tell you where it started, so we have to have some leeway with the reality of the questions.</p><p><em><strong>Read more:</strong> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tour-de-france-cyclist-race-makes-you-worse-human-physically-2019-7">Canadian in Tour de France who ran a sub-4 mile says he still runs because doing nothing but pedaling for 3 weeks makes you 'a better bike racer but a worse human' physically</a></em></p><p>But typically if the rider can explain, "Oh, this is what happened" and there are some details to it, like they went down, they hopped back up, they can tell you the whole story and answer some pertinent questions about their surroundings, then that's a really good screen. And then just how they're acting, how they're riding, because balance is key.</p><p>And you hope not to put a concussed rider on the bike, but with the nature of cycling sometimes they're back on the bike before someone gets to them. So, de facto, it becomes a little bit of a decent test on their way back to the peloton, like how are they riding? It is not ideal, but in the real word that we live in we use all those things.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5d28d5f3a17d6c196d7ee0b6-2000/tejay van garderen out of tour de france 2019 after crashing breaking thumb.jpg" border="0" alt="Tejay van Garderen out of Tour de France 2019 after crashing breaking thumb" data-mce-source="AP Photo/Thibault Camus" data-mce-caption="Tejay Van Garderen of the U.S. bleeds after crashing during the seventh stage of the Tour de France cycling race over 230 kilometers (142,9 miles) with start in Belfort and finish in Chalon sur Saone, France, Friday, July 12, 2019. (AP Photo/Thibault Camus)" /></div></div></div></p><p><strong>McMahon:</strong> What role did Van Garderen's teammates play?</p><p><strong>Sprouse:</strong> What's great is that our riders really look after each other. I've seen it in other scenarios this year where there was a crash, as in the Amstel Gold Race, where Alex Howes got a concussion. And again, because of the scenario, there wasn't a doctor around him. And it's Amstel, so the pack is strung out. There wasn't a doctor around immediately. When the team car came up, Nate Brown dropped back and said, "Hey, Alex isn't good. You gotta get him out." Having the guys look out for each other is fantastic. That's an ideal scenario.</p><p>Today we had [Tom] Scully spend some time with Tejay. Tanel [Kangert] was also there. Not that we rely on them for any kind of medical decisions, but the fact that they're there the first couple of minutes helps. So it's kind of mining all that data that's there to get an idea of what's going on. For the race doctor who's there, they can do a quick assessment at the car, ask a few questions, make sure there are no obvious fractures that would disqualify him from continuing.</p><p><strong>McMahon:</strong> What happened once he finished the stage?</p><p><strong>Sprouse:</strong> After I cleaned him up on the bus, I thought we were going to have to do some stitches, but there was nothing that was very deep, thank goodness, so we got him bandaged and to the X-ray truck. We did an X-ray of his left hand, which showed a fairly non-displaced fracture at the base of the first medial carpal, which is kind of the base of the thumb. We also did an ultrasound to make sure there was no tendon damage or soft-tissue damage, and that all looked good.</p><p><em><strong>Read more:</strong> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tour-france-team-bans-cellphones-dinner-table-2019-7">US Tour de France team bans cellphones at dinner table</a></em></p><p>So it was basically a fracture of the thumb, which in and of itself is not a terrible injury, but when you're cycling you've got to have some strength in your hands just to ride safely. You support yourself right on that spot, that pad on your hand, what we call the thenar eminence. You put a lot of weight there. So if there's a fracture under that and you're going to ride two more weeks over bumpy roads, there's a good chance that that fracture that's nice and well-aligned right now could become malaligned and need surgery.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5d2a2516a17d6c7259357b57-1698/kevin sprouse doctor for tour de france team ef education first.png" border="0" alt="Kevin Sprouse doctor for Tour de France team EF Education First" data-mce-source="Jojo Harper/EF Education First Pro Cycling" /></div></div></div></p><p><strong>McMahon:</strong> So there wasn't any initial sign of concussion.</p><p><strong>Sprouse:</strong> There was no sign of concussion, but concussion is something that can present over 6, 8, 12 hours, so we'll keep an eye on that, but right now no concussion.</p><p><strong>McMahon:</strong> The doctor-patient conversation is of course confidential, but what can you tell us about the nature of the conversation that took place with you, Van Garderen, and team management following the stage?</p><p><strong>Sprouse:</strong> What I can tell you is that my take on these things is to remind riders in these scenarios there are always pros and cons. What is the benefit of this decision? What is the benefit of that decision? What are the ways we can approach it step-wise? Also, we can say, "Hey, the race doesn't start until tomorrow morning. If you're torn and we're not sure how to go with this, let's sit on it an hour or two. Let's talk again in a little bit."</p><p>While a lot of times the decision may be fairly cut and dried, it's hard to come to that realization for someone who's been training all year for an event. So rather than just pull the plug when it doesn't need to be abrupt, giving it some time is a gentler way of having that conversation.</p><p><em><strong>Read more:</strong> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tour-de-france-favorites-ranked-2019-7">The Tour de France favorites, ranked</a></em></p><p><strong>McMahon:</strong> As team doctor, you have the ultimate say whether a rider can continue. What went into your decision?</p><p><strong>Sprouse:</strong> There are at least two sides of it. One, if there's imminent medical danger, then absolutely I've got to say we shut it down right there. But in a lot cases that's not actually what we're dealing with. It's more of a subtle pro and con.</p><p>So with this, from a strictly medical standpoint, you could rationalize riding and say, "OK, if this fracture doesn't move, great, we'll put a cast on it in two weeks. And if it does move, it can be fixed surgically." And of course this is the Tour de France. It's not some little race. So potentially medically, just taking him into account, it could work. But as Tejay was quick to recognize, even in that scenario, he may put other people at risk, not being able to brake and handle the bike.</p><p>There are a lot of other things that come into play, including his safety and the safety of other people. And can he actually contribute? So I've got the yes or no on the major medical issue, but the other stuff, we kind of talk through it and what makes sense and what's safe.</p>

Inside the decision that led the best-placed American to stop racing in the Tour de France, according to his team doctor

<p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5d154b5f9dfbce25540e6c47-1941/new-cannondale-supersix-evo-tour-de-france-2019.jpg" border="0" alt="new Cannondale SuperSix EVO Tour de France 2019" data-mce-source="Daniel McMahon" data-link="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/daniel-mcmahon" /></div></div></div></p><p>Just like that it's Tour time, and, as with every <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/tour-de-france">Tour de France</a>, new bikes are rolling out in the buildup to the <a href="https://www.letour.fr/en/grand-depart-2019">Grand Départ</a>.</p><p>That includes the Connecticut-based <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/category/cannondale">Cannondale</a>, which on Friday unveiled the new <a href="https://www.cannondale.com/en/USA/Products/ProductCategory.aspx?nid=58983467-4fe8-4631-98f8-febc1ef56986&amp;utm_source=publisher&amp;utm_medium=article&amp;utm_campaign=2019-supersix-evo-promo">SuperSix EVO</a>, billed as the world's "fastest lightweight road bike." The riders on the US-registered <a href="https://www.efprocycling.com/">EF Education First</a> team are expected to race fresh EVOs at the Tour, which starts <a href="https://www.letour.fr/en/grand-depart-2019">July 6 in Brussels</a>. (They've actually been riding them in stealth mode for some time, in pro cycling's <a href="https://www.instagram.com/p/BzONGTCBNPw/">open tech secret</a>.)</p><p><a href="https://www.cannondale.com/">Cannondale</a> says the new bike is significantly faster and more comfortable than the previous iteration, which Business Insider <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cannondale-supersix-evo-disc-brake-bike-ride-review-2017-5">reviewed</a> in 2017. An all-rounder, the EVO slots in between Cannondale's two other race bikes: the hyper-aero <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cannondale-system-six-fastest-bike-tour-de-france-2018-6">SystemSix</a>, which debuted last summer and is the company's fastest bike, used in flatter road races, and the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tour-de-france-roubaix-cobbles-phinney-synapse-bike-2018-7">compliant Synapse</a>, its most forgiving ride, preferred in punishing events like the cobbled Paris-Roubaix.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5d158633ba1ec92d87623fa2-2000/supersix evo aero cockpit itegrated.jpg" border="0" alt="SuperSix EVO aero cockpit itegrated.JPG" data-mce-source="Daniel McMahon" data-link="https://www.businessinsider.com/author/daniel-mcmahon" /></div></div></div></p><p>"We've hit a weight that's the same or lighter than the previous bike, but we've added so many features," Nathan Barry, a Cannondale design engineer, told Business Insider. "The drag at 30-mph race speed is 30 watts less drag than the old bike. It's the same stiffness numbers and handling, but there's bigger tire clearance, more integration, thru axles front and rear, internal cable routing, and more. It's a perfectly rounded race bike."</p><p>In addition to the more-aero tubes, the standout design feature with this EVO is the rear triangle and its dropped seat stays, which, according to the company, make for better aerodynamics - "because there's just less stuff in the way of the wind" - and a more comfortable ride. It follows numerous brands that have incorporated dropped stays into their frame designs, notably Specialized with the Tarmac and BMC with the Teammachine.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5d15a01427b6522d6c669c94-2000/new cannondale supersix evo debut stealth.jpg" border="0" alt="new Cannondale SuperSix EVO debut stealth" data-mce-source="Tim de Waele/Getty Images" /></div></div></div></p><p>"By having the seat stays into the seat tube, below the top tube, if you develop your layup correctly, it can allow the seat tube to flex, and that gives you some comfort in the saddle, which is restricted when you have the seat stays forming a perfect truss with the front triangle," Barry said.</p><p>"The reason we're seeing dropped rear stays across multiple brands is that it's an engineering solution to a problem that multiple people are trying to solve. If your goal is more comfort and to reduce drag, that is a good way to further that to the back half of the bike."</p><p>Another difference is the wider tire clearance. With the <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/cannondale-supersix-evo-disc-brake-bike-ride-review-2017-5#in-back-theres-plenty-of-clearance-too-so-if-you-want-a-plusher-ride-you-could-go-with-28mm-tires-or-maybe-even-bigger-just-be-sure-to-check-for-adequate-clearance-cannondale-recommends-not-exceeding-28mm-or-add-some-off-road-or-cyclocross-style-tires-with-some-tread-and-hit-the-trails-21">previous frame set</a>, the EVO could run tires up to 28 mm wide, which was already generous, but the new bike can accept tires as wide as 30 mm and still have 6 mm of clearance around the tire, according to Cannondale. That's welcome news, because generally a <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/tour-de-france-wider-tires-lower-pressure-faster-2018-7">wider tire is not only more comfortable but also faster</a>, as we learned at last year's Tour.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5d159cf46dab44311a0b5d43-2000/supersix evo vs specialized trek other bikes wind tunnel.png" border="0" alt="SuperSix EVO vs. Specialized Trek other bikes wind tunnel" data-mce-source="Cannondale" /></div></div></div></p><p>Unlike with the disc-only SystemSix, riders interested in the new EVO can opt for discs or rim brakes. Cannondale says there's no difference in stiffness or geometry between the two versions.</p><p>Also different from the older bike is that the new EVO is integrated, À la the SystemSix. Combined, the aero frame tubes, fork, wheels, seat post, handlebar, and stem make up Cannondale's system-integrated design, which, the company says, saves a rider those 30 watts at 30 mph (48 km/h). Also impressive, the company says the new bike increases compliance by up to 18%.</p><p><div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image"><img src="https://static-ssl.businessinsider.com/image/5d160c5e4071055bc625e323-1906/evo yaw weighted drag power watts savings.png" border="0" alt="EVO yaw weighted drag power watts savings" data-mce-source="Cannondale" /></div></div></div></p><p>Cannondale has also launched a mobile app that pairs with an integrated wheel sensor to deliver speed, route, and distance, as well as other information about your bike, including the serial number and service reminders.</p><p>The new line begins with the SuperSix EVO Carbon 105, at $2,200, and runs all the way up to the SuperSix Hi-Mod Disc Dura-Ace Di2, at $11,500. Certain models come with a built-in power meter. Cannondale said the new EVOs would start shipping immediately.</p><p>Last week, Cannondale sent Business Insider a SuperSix EVO Hi-Mod Disc Ultegra Di2, a $7,500 bike (it has the same frame set the pros are expected to race at the Tour). And while we had enough time for just a few rides, here are some initial impressions of the most talked-about new bike heading into the Tour.</p>

With the Tour de France a week away, I rode the new Cannondale SuperSix EVO, billed as the 'fastest lightweight road bike,' to see what it was all about. Here's the verdict.

You Searched For "ef pro cycling" and got 11 results

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Inside the decision that led the best-placed American to stop racing in the Tour de France, according to his team doctor

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With the Tour de France a week away, I rode the new Cannondale SuperSix EVO, billed as the 'fastest lightweight road bike,' to see what it was all about. Here's the verdict.

Daniel McMahon