Stanley St. Social | Cycling News and Interviews

Description

Max Gawn joins from Thailand for a Wednesday Social Club. He reckons if Pogačar comes to the Tour Down Under, he falls in love with it and comes back three years running. And if anyone has the mail, it's Michael Matthews.

We unpack the points system and why being a top-three ProTeam is now the money spot in cycling. That brings in Euskaltel's late points dash for Mikel Landa, and the Oceania Champs heading to Adelaide in January with 250 UCI points up for grabs.

Also in this episode:

• Reflections on the Stuart O'Grady interview and the state of Australian cycling
• Max's 2015 Player Revue, and what free drink cards will get you
• Widar beats Pidcock in Guangxi, Simmons v Healy at the Japan Cup, Campenaerts wins the Eneco Tour and McNulty finally wins in the rainbow stripes
• Another car on the course, Adam Hansen's battle for rider safety, and the NOS investigation into Picnic PostNL
• Carapaz to NSN, EF's finances, Ayuso's tough first year at Lidl-Trek, Roglič playing the field and Matt White leaving Movistar
• Max's Patagonia prep, Zwift top-ups between running sessions, and why he might be a Giant Defy man for life

The Social Club is presented by Giant.

Max Gawn sits down with Santos Tour Down Under race director Stuart O’Grady to go through the 2027 route, stage by stage, the morning after Max and Ed Langdon Everested Willunga Hill.

They talk leaving Willunga out of his first race as director. O'Grady explains how the men’s and women’s races will run on the same day, on the same course, for the first time in the Australian summer.

In this episode:

• Max’s Everest numbers: 8,911 metres, 13,000 calories and 21 hours in the saddle
• A short, steep climb three times in the final of stage one from Henley Beach
• Corkscrew twice on stage three, now turning right like the women did this year
• Willunga Hill from a new direction, and a Norwood to Stirling finale
• How points farming has changed the TDU, and Max on Jayco’s Australian identity
• The 2028 route Stewie’s already designed, and whether Pogačar is coming

CPA president Adam Hansen joins us fresh from the first UCI cycling reform meeting to talk rider safety, salaries and anti-doping from the inside.

Heads up: the audio isn’t our usual standard, but what he shares is well worth pushing through for.

Adam takes us through what was discussed at the reform table, and how rolling road closures actually work after a week of vehicles on course in the Italian races.

He lays out his top five safety priorities, from GPS trackers and hookless tyres to helmets only rated to around 22 km/h, and why he expects trackers in every race by mid-next year.

We also get into the ITA night tests on Tadej and Jonas at the Tour, the flaws in the ADAMS whereabouts system that riders fear more than testing itself, why he believes the peloton is clean, and where airbags fit into the future of racing.

Max Gawn's top five transfers of the trade period so far, from Giulio Ciccone to Q36.5 and Filippo Ganna to Lidl-Trek to Ben Turner at Soudal Quick-Step.

Plus Paul Seixas wins Il Lombardia, Per Strand Hagenes takes Paris-Tours, and Plappy is out of Guangxi with a fractured wrist.

In this Social Club:

• Alex hits the wall at the Chicago Marathon, and Jimmy Whelan v Kipchoge in Melbourne
• Max on being the heaviest Everester, and why no one over 115kg has beaten him yet
• Gravel Worlds in Perth, and whether Paris-Tours should be the sixth monument
• Remco's five-minute safety protest at Lombardia, ahead of our Adam Hansen interview
• Ciccone v Mauro Schmid, and how Australia sells the Tour Down Under to the world's best riders

The Social Club is presented by Giant. Max's Giant garage now runs to two Propels, two TCRs, an Anthem, a Fathom and a Revolt.

Max is back on Zwift since his Everest, right next to the sauna.

Max Gawn has Everested Willunga Hill: 39 and a half laps, 8,851 metres, no power meter and 115 kilos, alongside Ed Langdon and Hamish Blake.

Plus Plappy on crashes and police motorbikes on the course in Italy, Remco v Ciccone at the Euros, and who wins Il Lombardia.

In this Social Club:

• Max's Everest top five, the low points, and why the pub at the bottom matters
• Hot laps with Stuart O'Grady and Darren Hicks, and a road closed by the SA Government
• Ciccone's mid-contract move to Q36.5, Ganna to Lidl-Trek and Jordi Meeus
• UCI points now on offer for track, mountain bike and gravel
• Jimmy Whelan v Eliud Kipchoge at the Melbourne Marathon, and Plappy v Pidcock in China

The Social Club is presented by Giant. Max rode his Everest on the Giant Defy.

Former GreenEDGE rider Sam Bewley joins us for a look at what goes on behind the scenes at a WorldTour team. Sam is now Head Sports Director at NSN. His job covers race strategy from the car, deciding which DS goes to which race, and helping recruit the riders who will shape the squad in 2028.

We talk about how NSN is rebuilding into a balanced team after Derek Gee's departure, and how you create a single culture across 25 nationalities. Sam also explains why race calendars and support riders often matter more than salary to young leaders, and how the invite system can leave teams stuck at races they no longer want.

He goes inside Biniam Girmay's Tour de France campaign and explains why the team stayed motivated without a stage win. He also remembers his first race as a DS, directing Chris Froome at the Tour Down Under, and shares the beer-with-the-mechanics approach he took to building trust in the job.

Brandon McNulty is the 2026 road world champion. Team USA's 8-man squad outplayed Mathieu van der Poel, Remco Evenepoel and Wout van Aert at the UCI Road World Championships in Montreal, and Michael Matthews rode to a heroic silver for Australia with almost no team support.

On this week's Social Club, Alex Clements and AFL captain Max Gawn break down the most chaotic Worlds road race in years. We cover how the race unfolded and how Team USA used their numbers perfectly, with Matteo Jorgensen and Quinn Simmons setting up McNulty's winning attack. We also get into why Belgium's plan fell apart, Isaac del Toro's huge workload for Mexico, and Tom Pidcock's late move. And we ask the big question: should Australia have sent a full team to back Bling?

Plus we recap Demi Vollering's thrilling win in the women's elite road race, Talia Appleton's fifth in the women's U23s, Jack Ward's top 10 in the men's U23s, the junior races, and the rest of the week in pro cycling.

Max is fresh off fourth in the Brownlow, the best vote count of his career, and a red carpet interview that started with a question about the world wheelchair championship. He also talks Everest prep: seven laps of Mount Dandenong, roughly 40 climbs to go in South Australia, and a possible pub stop for a parma halfway through.

Plappy's back in Spain after an underdone return in Italy, and he's lining up in China next month, where a certain mountain bike world champion has just appeared on the start list. He also walks through the mechanics' nightly group chat, chainrings, cassettes and the tyre pressures that will horrify anyone still running 120 psi.

Then it's Worlds. With Pogačar out and Carapaz withdrawn, the road race is wide open. We break down Belgium's two-leader plan, whether the French can make it hard enough to drop Van der Poel and Van Aert, and why Del Toro might beat Remco and Paul Seixas in a sprint. Max gives his tips, Alex backs Lorenzo Finn as a smokey, and Plappy is dreaming of a Van Aert rainbow jersey.

Plus: the TT verdict on Ganna's future, Felicity Wilson-Haffenden's junior title, the Oceania Championships landing in Adelaide in January, a transfer round-up including Gall, Mühlberger and a possible Welsford move to Jayco, and Max's Top Five presented by Pillar Performance: the best fluffers in cycling.

Aaron Gate made the WorldTour with Astana at 34. New Zealand's most decorated Commonwealth Games athlete joins us to talk through one of the most unlikely careers in the peloton. He won Olympic team pursuit bronze in London, then worked through a string of teams that folded underneath him, including Aqua Blue, which shut down with a single email in August, and Evo Pro, which still owes him half a season's pay.

Aaron takes us from hacksawing time trial bikes together before De Panne, to riding Madisons around Europe with Shane Archibald to qualify New Zealand for the worlds, to finally landing a WorldTour contract with Astana at 34. He also relives this year's Tour debut: a teammate's disc wheel flying at his head in the Barcelona team time trial, stitches in his face after stage two, then leading out sprints in the final kilometres. Plus Stefan Denifl, a voice note from Vinokourov, and whether LA 2028 is next.

Luke Tuckwell's first Grand Tour was a three-week apprenticeship. He rode the Vuelta a España as Primož Roglič's climbing support, spent most of it on his wheel, and came out the other side named in Australia's team for his first elite world championships. He's 22.

Roglič wanted him sitting behind rather than leading, which turned out to be the better classroom - Luke could watch where a nine-time Grand Tour podium finisher puts himself in a bunch, and when he spends energy and when he doesn't. By the final week the two of them had stopped needing to speak. He also gets into what Roglič passed on off the bike, the bus conversations, and why a rider that decorated was still thanking his teammates on stage 21.

Then Montreal. Luke wasn't expecting selection, what Matt Hayman told him about bringing young riders through early, and a very honest answer on why the green and gold never moved the needle at junior and U23 level — and why it does now. Plus why he thinks a chaotic race suits an Australian team without a superstar.

And the road that got him there: the Simon Clark message in 2021, an Italian team where nobody spoke English, learning how to train in Girona, and the night at the Baby Giro when Red Bull said his results didn't match his power numbers.