Hey, everyone, welcome to King of the Ride podcast.

I am Ted King, your host here on the show.

It is July.

All eyes are on France.

The Olympics, I read around the corner, but even more so, the Tour de France is on right now.

I am quite frankly thrilled to have our guest on the podcast now, Sam Buelly, a Tour de France rider himself, Tour de France commentator, Tour de France Sports Director.

Now for those unfamiliar, stepping back a few steps, Sam is a New Zealander now living in Europe, courtesy of the bicycle.

He earned a world championship medal on the track. He graduated to the world Tour, had an impressive, successful, lengthy 13-year career there.

He's a powerhouse on the bike and among other helping hands along the way.

He helped his team Orica Green Edge, now J-Co-A-Lula, grab a stage during of the 2015

Jiro in the team time trial.

Sam was a veteran of the cobbles of grant tours. He had a great

career that wrapped up in 2022. In the very next year, he went behind the wheel as a sports

director for Israel Premier Tech. Now, slight side note, Sam has a podcast that is one of my

absolute favorites. I've listened to every episode. I've cracked up

through every episode, the social distance podcast. He along with two other hosts talk in a

hilarious, upbeat, a little crass, but always in a way that sheds light on professional

cycling, either through analysis or outlandish anecdotes. Definitely check out the social distance pod.

And given that as the tour,

given that last year Sam was commentating for NBC,

I knew you could help shed some light on the tour for me, for us,

which is why I reached out.

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