The Race Communiqué: Why the Vuelta is the Best Grand Tour & Durbo’s Transfer Gossip

Life in the Peloton, presented by MAAP

Mitch Docker

Fitness, Sports, Wilderness, Health & Fitness

4.8 • 543 Ratings

🗓️ 20 August 2025

⏱️ 65 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Just because the Tour de France is over, doesn’t mean the party’s over! I’m back with Tom Southam and Luke Durbridge for this month’s Race Communique. Tom and Luke have just got back from a puncture-filled Hamburg Classic, and the Vuelta a España is about to kick off! I love the Vuelta - it’s the Grand Tour I raced the most in my career, and I’ve got to say it’s my favourite. Southam and Durbo disagree, so we kick off by having a three-way head-to-head: Giro VS Tour VS Vuelta. Which is best, and why? I made my case for the Vuelta, the hardest Grand Tour by a long way…as far as I’m concerned. Luke reckons the Tour is the best because, well, because it’s the Tour. The Giro’s case was made by Southam, who just loves the drama - he’s obviously never watched the Vuelta! In this month’s PeloChat, Durbo goes through this year’s transfers and gives us his take on who’s going where, why they’re moving, and what it might mean for the sport. Remco to Red Bull Bora Hansgrohe is the biggest move of the year, and the young Belgian superstar has definitely raised some eyebrows by moving. Will he clash with Roglič? Will they be able to support him to win the Tour de France? Only time will tell. Luke’s teammates Dylan Groenewegen and Elmar Reinders are stepping down to TDT Unibet - a second division ProTeam! An interesting move in an effort to get the young Dutch squad to the Tour de France in the next few years. He’s also got some insight into Tom Pidcock’s Q36.5’s squad and their signings; some big riders heading that way too. Lots of moves, but Durbo’s across it. Southam’s diving into the modern breakaway in this month’s Talking Tactics. Things have changed a hell of a lot over the last few years in the breakaway; we don’t see 20-minute time gaps any more, and the breaks are kept on a much tighter leash. As the level gets higher and higher, the quality of the lower division teams is getting better and better, and smaller riders are more of a threat in the breakaways these days. It’s great, and I love the exciting racing where the breaks actually have a chance, but shit, it looks so hard. Of course, we wind up with the Communiquiz. Tom’s quiz master this week, and it’s about Summer Classics. You’ll have to listen to the episode to hear how this goes, but let’s just say…I had a bit of a shocker. Guys, I hope you like this episode. I love catching up with Durbo and Southam, especially when they’re in the midst of the racing season; bringing you this insight is what it’s all about. Cheers, Mitch The Race Communiqué is brought to you by TrainingPeaks! Track, plan, and train smarter - just like the pros. Get 20% off TrainingPeaks Premium now at trainingpeaks.com/litp Life in the Peloton is proudly brought to you by MAAP. maap.cc 🎧 Timecodes 00:00:00 – Intro 00:09:49 – Race Recap (Which is the best Grand Tour? You decide!) 00:36:58 – Pelo Chat (Durbo's Transfer Gossip) 00:48:08 – Talking Tactics (The Modern Breakaway) 00:58:18 – CommuniQuiz (Summer classics conundrums - Mitch has a mare!)

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	Welcome. Good to see you. It's been a short month. It's good to be back. Welcome back to the
0:21.0	Race Communique, Luke Derbridge, Tom Southern. Great to have you here, boys. Good to be here.
0:25.9	Good night. Not too long since Derbo and I caught up, actually, in Hamburg a couple of days ago.
0:33.5	We had a good catch-up mid-race.
0:35.8	Oh, we did. We did, actually. Yeah.
0:37.4	We were in the silent car again. I was in the... You had a good catch-up mid-race. Oh, we did. We did, actually. Yeah.
0:37.7	We were in the silent car again.
0:40.6	I was in the silent car.
0:43.0	And first time in my career, so Hamburg goes off and it does these little loops,
0:47.3	first time in my career, I've ever had a flat tire in the team car.
0:52.0	And like, not just a little flat tire, but like an inch and a
0:57.4	half slice, there's no way you're fixing that. And so I don't know like these days there's no
1:03.8	there's no spare wheels in cars. So I've pulled up basically with 90Ks to go in the race,
1:09.0	right, totally flat tire, pull up the car on the side of the road and just thinking about what to do. And then up pops burbo rolling down the road. I shouldn't have. With the car, Jack. I shouldn't have been there anyway. But I sort of rolled up. I'm like, it was a strange point for a bottle point. I just rolled in and just saw I saw Tom on the side of the road just leaned against the car, like this cool dude with all these bikes. And I was like, what are you doing? And he goes, got a puncture. I was like, what are you doing? I was like, we just sat there. We had a chat. And then I was like, so are you saying that the boys are doing the lap and they've got no follow car? And he's like, yep, I hope you got no one punctures because we have no one in the bus. We had nothing. We had nothing. So I let the race go back past and then I like set off on three wheels, like following the like the last, the ambulance. Like, ding, dig, then'Urba at the start of the road, like,
2:01.0	pointing going, they're that way,
2:02.7	they're that way.
2:05.3	I had to drive to the bus and sit, like, with the car parked,
2:09.8	like, poking on the radio,
2:11.5	it's like where the riders could hear me,
2:13.0	because sometimes they were close.
2:14.8	But, okay, pull now, boys, boys, pull now.
2:16.6	If you can hear me, pulled out.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Mitch Docker, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Mitch Docker and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.