Hello and joining you on the 1,944th anniversary of the most famous volcanic eruption in the

history of mankind, nothing to do with Patrick Lafayette. I'm realizing that Remko Avenopoul

hasn't completely put an end to speculation about his future. I am, of course, talking

about Mount Vesuvius on August 24th, 79 AD. It's thought to have happened then. My name

is Daniel Friebert and this in this episode we'll be talking about how Remko can defend

his welter-eye spanier title while eking out another three weeks, what he called the bullshit

conjecture around his possible divorce from Lafayette. We'll be looking ahead to the

welter in general and in particular it's Gran Salida in Barcelona, in the company of

a famous Lionel who is to the podcast. What his namesake Messi was to the Catalan capital

for 20 years. Lionel Bernie, how are you? Wow. Wow. You're normally the number 10 of

the cycling podcast, aren't you? This makes me Christiana right now though. I'm a sort

of the preening show pony around Madrid. I'd be a more workman like number 16 or something,

not even in the first 11 but can do a job in a number of different positions I suppose

as and when called upon. Daniel, the big question, are you more Barcelona or Real Madrid?

And this will be my last question. That's a great question. Do you know what? I'm reading

in preparation for the welter. I'm reading a fascinating book called Fear and Loathing

in La Liga by Sid Lowe, the English author and there's a lot in there about the history

of the rivalry, El Clasico of course, that's also the name of our welter coverage because

the race is going from Barcelona to Madrid and there's a lot of fascinating stuff in there

about the, as I say, the origins of the rivalry, loads of great stuff about the Spanish civil war

which I didn't know a whole lot about and it's made me, if I was undecided before reading that,

it's made me more of a Barça fan than a Real Madrid fan although you know there is a sort of

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