Caley, James, and Neal open this week's episode examining the opening days of the Vuelta a Espana and look at the recent emergence of LottoNL-Jumbo as a serious GC grand tour team.

The trio also chats about the folding of Aqua Blue Sport and a peculiar anonymous email we received.

Finally, Italian frame builder Dario Pegoretti passed away last week at the age of 62. We talk with Silca's Joshua Poertner, who worked closely with Pegoretti, about the Italian legend.

A bike, any bike, is a sum of its decisions. Good ones and, yes, sometimes bad ones.

Who makes those decisions? People do. Well, mostly. Computers help quite a lot these days. But even with all sorts of fancy software, building a new bike from scratch still takes a huge team of people. It takes engineers of all sorts. A product manager to make sure the thing works. Aerodynamicists to make it fast. Designers to make it pretty. The announcement of a new model is the final step in a process that began two to three years prior. That’s two to three years of decisions.

A pile of new bikes came out before the Tour de France this year. Among them was this Venge. We wrote about it then, and we’ve been riding it since. One thing stuck out: It’s a lot better than the last Venge. Way better.

That comes down to decisions. So, at Specialized’s invitation, we flew to Morgan Hill, California, home of Specialized HQ, and sat down with four people responsible for most of those decisions.

This episode is brought to you by Specialized.

We open this week's episode looking back at the Colorado Classic where UnitedHealthcare went 1-2 in both the men's and women's final overall standings. The program is set to fold at the end of the season.

Then, Shane Stokes looks into the importance of resilience in the sport of cycling. 

Finally, James, Neal, and Caley talk about what makes things cool in cycling. And who decides that stuff is cool, anyway?

We open this week's episode with a small rant, and a bit of cursing. James doesn't like it when cyclists treat each other as the enemy. We're all friends here, right? 

Then, a discussion of some of the unfortunate events of the last week. We have Lance Armstrong's thoughts on the Jan Ullrich situation, plus the sad story of Adrien Costa's climbing accident and the incredible reaction from the cycling family. 

Finally, a look at the winner of last week's Tour of Utah, a young climber from Colorado named Sepp Kuss, and then a look ahead to the Colorado Classic. 

And we're back to your regularly scheduled programming. 

Caley is back from the Tour de France and rejoins James and Neal to talk about the racing that's gone on since the Tour finished (yes, there's been some) and the best ways to travel with your bike, without breaking it. 

Plus, a dive into the mystery of Mr. X, a shadowy figure who went from cycling advocate to cycling hater. Our own Matt de Neef and Iain Treloar spent the better part of two months digging into his story, and bring you a short documentary with their findings.

"Ghosts I-IV" by Nine Inch Nails is licensed under CC BY 2.0.